The Wind Through My Hair
by LMTran
Summary: “I...want to be a Marauder,” Lily said' Lily is a follow-the-rules sort of person. But, when she wants to have a go at being a wild-child, how will she change her image so quickly? One word: Blackmail.
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to J.K.Rowling. I do own..uh...my stuff, though. ^_^;

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The Wind Through My Hair

Lily Evans sat in the passenger seat of a bright red, 69' Mustang. She was as happy and content as a ten year old could possibly be, with the wind whipping all around her, and through her hair. Lily was the spitting image of her mother, who sat in the driver's seat, and every once in a while, glanced from the road to smile at her daughter. The scenery was speeding past; it was all going by so fast, Lily couldn't even make out exactly where they were. However, as ten years olds are apt to do, her curiosity about such a trivial matter was soon diminished, and all she really cared about was the bright, warm sun beaming down on her. 

Her mother let go of the steering wheel, and looked to Lily. Strangely enough, the car could steer itself, and it wasn't slowing down. Lily wished it would though- she would love to see where they were. 

"Lily dear, I have to go...but you can drive yourself, can't you? I trust you..." her mother said. And with that, her mother disappeared. Lily wasn't panicking, but was rather serene. She only wondered how her mother could trust her with such an expensive car...Still, the sun continued to shine, annoyingly bright. 

Lily blinked slowly, and rubbed her eyes. She entangled herself from her orange, floral print sheets, and tried to open her groggy eyes all the way. It had been a rather strange dream. She got up and stumbled out of bed, walking toward her dresser. It had been a really pleasant dream. The wind has been so nice, and the car-- wow, she wished they owned such a nice car. But here was the real Lily Evans-- just a young girl who lived in the suburbs. Your average neighborhood, where you could always find the kids outside riding their bicycles on such a nice day. They weren't terribly rich, and they weren't terribly poor. There wasn't anything _really_ spectacular about Lily Evans. She was just middle of the road. 

Except her eyes. Her eyes were a startlingly wonderful shade of green. A deep color green, that probably wouldn't have been so special against a darker color skin. But Lily's skin was a delicate pale color, and her hair was auburn red. It only made her eyes stand out more. _Oh, yes, _her hair and complexion were nice- but it was those eyes that made Lily Evans...well, _Lily Evans_. 

The dream she had had was ebbing away from her interest. It hadn't really been so horrific that it was sticking in her mind. After all, people only really recall their more scary dreams off the top of their head. The nice ones seem to be forgotten quickly. And besides, ten years olds weren't prone to analyzing their dreams very much. And Lily Evans wasn't out of the ordinary. She was just middle of the road. She was just wasn't spectacular. She was like every other ten year old. Except...she wasn't ten anymore. 

Lily smiled to herself, as she picked out the special birthday dress her mother had bought her and snuck into her wardrobe while she was sleeping. It wasn't too fancy, but it was nice. A pretty white, short dress, with cherries on it and a rounded collar. She slipped it on and tied the red ribbon that was around the middle into a bow, and slipped on the little white dress shoes with ruffled socks. Her short read hair was in a bob, and she put on a headband quickly, after running a brush through her hair. It was such a beautiful day to have a birthday, 

Lily walked out of her room into the kitchen, where she could smell breakfast. Scrambled eggs and toast. Mm, she could tell by the seasonings her mother was using. Lily walked in, her little white shoes making tapping sounds on the tiled floor. The sizzle of the frying pan was making her all the more hungry. 

"Hello Honey," her mother said. She had her long read hair tied up in a messy pony tail, and had on an apron. "Happy Birthday, my eleven year old flower!" she said, smiling at her. 

"Thanks, mum!" Lily said. 

"Lily, you've got some mail. It's on the table. It was weird...the only letter delivered today, and so early too," said her mother. Then said jokingly, "I suppose even the mail-man wanted you to get your birthday cards early!" Lily laughed playfully, and reached on the table for a large, thick looking letter. 

On the letter, there was her name, and her address (and her room?) written in very curly green writing. She looked at the handwriting curiously, and then openly it up eagerly. She had never gotten such a large letter before-- what could be in it? Several papers fell out at once, and she reached for the one on the top of the pile. It read,

__

Dear Miss Evans,

We are pleased to inform you that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has accepted you to join us for our school year. There is a supply list attached. All of your school supply items may be found in London-- please be ready to start the school year on September the first at platform 9 3/4. We hope to see you soon.

Sincerly,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Head Mistress

Lily looked at the note disbelievingly and called to her mother...

***********************

Lily stood and shuffled her feet nervously. She was standing in the middle of the crowd of people, in a large hall. There was silence all around her, except the silent murmurs of forced conversation around her. All of them were her age, and they were all waiting to find out how exactly they were to be sorted. Some of the kids looked like they were trying to look calm and collected, but others did not even hide how petrified they were. 

  
"ARGH!" came from the back of the crowd, and everyone turned around to look at the same time. A rather handsome boy was doubled over in laughter on the ground. Lily wondered why he was laughing so much, when she realized the boy next to him was bright purple. He looked furious and shocked at the same time. 

"_You're....you...PURPLE!" _The laughing boy said through peels of laughter. His fit of giggles seemed contagious, as sniggers were heard through the hall. And, despite the fact that the boy who was purple was in an odd situation, and had every right to be mad, he looked like he wanted to smile very badly. The corners of his mouth twitched upward, and he laughed very quietly, gradually laughing more and more. They both stopped abruptly though, when they felt a pair of stern eyes burning a whole through them. 

"Everyone, follow Professor Flitwick through the large doors, and wait to be sorted into your houses. You two, stay," she looked pointedly at the two boys, and Lily reluctantly followed the herd, out into the Great Hall. She had really wanted to find out what had happened...

****************

"Hey! Let's start a club!" James whispered excitedly, while sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. 

"A club?" Sirius asked, rather skeptical. "Aren't clubs for little kids? I dunno about you, but _I'm not _a little kid," he said. 

"Well...I don't know if I'll be able to participate all the time...I, er...get ill easily," Remus said, reluctantly. 

"Hey, you guys are starting a club? Can...I join?" Peter Pettigrew, a short, mousy looking boy said, eyes full of sparkle. 

"Er...yeah...sure you can join," James said. 

"Wait- who says we're starting a club? I said I don't like the club idea," Sirius said.

"I _said _we're starting one," James said.

"Well, I _don't_ like it," Sirius said, stubbornly. 

"Well, _you _don't have to join," said James. "But it'll be cool. Us only, no one else allowed. We can play pranks and stuff, and trick people. Make a name for ourselves, you know," he said, impressed with his wonderful idea. "It'd be called..._we'd _be called...er..."

"The...troublemakers?" Sirius supplied.

"The Masqueraders?" Peter said. 

"The Marauders?" Remus said. 

"The Marauders! That's perfect! We'd be known as the Marauders!" James said, getting overenthusiastic. 

Lily was sitting close-by, and had been eavesdropping. Gallivanting around the school and playing tricks with magic? That sounded like a lot of fun, especially to a girl who had never been exposed to the wonderful world of such magic before; the idea of going around and playing fun pranks was appealing to an eleven year old, magic _or_ none. 

"Wow, a trouble-making club? Can I join?" she asked, innocently, with no introduction. 

"Er, what?" Peter asked. He had been munching loudly on his food, and really hadn't heard her. 

"I...want to be a Marauder," she said. Sirius and James looked at each other, and for a few minutes, there was silence between them. Then, they both burst out laughing, a raring, side-splitting laughter. 

"_You? You want to be a Marauder?" _ they both gasped, still laughing hysterically.

"Why...er...yes. What's wrong with that?" Lily asked, slightly put-out.

"Well...you're...you're..." Sirius racked his brain for a word.

"What Sirius is trying to say is..._you're a girl!" _James almost shouted incredulously. Lily was absolutely shocked. A girl? Did she had cooties or something? 

"Yeah, that's right, a girl!" Sirius repeated, rather unnecessarily. The both got up and left for class, still sniggering heartily at the fact that she had the "nerve" to even ask of such an absurd favor. 

Lily looked at them angrily and did not say another word. That James character had been really rude to her. 

"Ugh..._boys," _she said. "I _don't _like that James kid, _at all."_

Author's note: Did you like? So, that's how Lily came to hate James Potter. Much way better in the chapters in come, so don't leave me here. REVIEW, PLEASE!


	2. Am I a prude?

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. Do not own. Do not sue, please.

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The Wind Through My Hair

Lily Evans, a sixteen year old sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Approximately one and a half years left at the place she had come to call a home away from home. She was a prefect, second year in a row, straight A student, and not bad looking. She had grown her cute little red bob into long, silky locks of red hair. Her eyes, however, were still the main attraction: strong and fierce, with a bit of superiority behind them. Though a beautiful piece of work, a scowl was often seen on her features...such as _now_.

"Potter! You _imbecile! _How many times have I told you? _Don't_ leave your gags around!" she yelled. It was normal, daily tirade time, as Lily accidentally picked up a fake wand lying on the common room table, next to her real one, as she tried to perform a complex NEWT level spell, and it turned into a large rubber model of Snape himself. In his boxers. 

James smirked, and said, "Who says it was dear old little old poor little pudding Jamsie? It could've been Sirius, or Peter...or even perfect Prefect Moonie! Why do you _always_ blame it on dear old poor little pudding Jamsie?" He was always teasing her, in a friendly way of course, but Lily had always hated him, for reasons dating back to when she couldn't remember. He had always seemed annoying to her, and she couldn't see why he was so popular. Aside from the fact that he was actually very fun-loving, and very humorous, and was very clever for not getting caught for half the pranks he and his friends did, Lily just couldn't see why everyone liked him. He was a dumb old poop head. Or, so said in the words of a less immature part of Lily Evans. 

She closed her eyes, as if trying to remember something peaceful to hold her very short temper. She was suffering from lack of sleep, and desperately wanted to get this spell down to perfect perfection. "Look Potter. Just get away from me right now, and don't bother me until...until...well, _forever_ would be nice, but I know that's quite impossible. So until lunch I suppose," she said. By the end of her sentence, she sounded pretty amused. She knew James was smitten with her, and though they both knew she didn't like him, she couldn't help but rub it in his face.

He rolled his eyes, somewhat annoyed. "Yeah, whatever, Evans," he said, as he spotted Peter, Remus, and Sirius. "I've got better things to do anyways," he said, offhandedly. Lily shrugged, not particularly caring, and just lost interest as James whispered, "So, next week's a full moon, eh?" then became immersed in her textbook. 

****************************

Lily patrolled the halls with Remus Lupin, on Thursday night. Their night to patrol the east wing, where the Astronomy Tower lay. Everyone knew that the Astronomy tower was the place to go for a make out session, or even something more. Everyone also knew that Lily Evans was on patrol that night, and she was a no-nonsense sort of girl.

"Remus, I still honestly don't see how you can be a 'famous' marauder, and still be a Prefect. I thought being a Marauder was all about rule-breaking. _You _happen to be a rule _enforcer_," she said. 

"Er...well...I suppose...you could be both you know," he said. They stopped their conversation though, when the reached the astronomy tower entrance. "Ladies first," Remus said, and Lily stepped in before him. Already, as Lily walked up the spiraling stairs, she could hear the rustling of robes and muffled sounds of romance. Lily rolled her eyes. 

She got up to the top, only to find two figures entangled with each other, the girl laughing playfully, and the boy, well...doing something to make her laugh. Lily cleared her throat, and both their heads jerked up. It was Sirius and his flavor or the week: Stephanie Lee of Ravenclaw. Now, Stephanie happened to be a good friend of Lily, so Stephanie thought she could go up to the Astronomy Tower tonight-- who wouldn't, when it was Sirius Black with them? He was definitely a playboy, but definitely beyond handsome. 

"Oh, hey Lily..." Stephanie said.

"Look Steph, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to have a detention. You know the rules," Lily said.

"Lils, aren't we friends? Just...let me get away with this once...please?" she said, looking at Lily with panic on her face, after glancing at Sirius. This was obviously her only chance with him. 

"_No, _Stephanie, you _know_ the rules. It's nearly 12. You are supposed to be in the common room by 9," said Lily. 

Stephanie had lost it. She had gone to great lengths to get Sirius's affection, and Lily was really wrecking their romantic moment. "Lily, you are such a _prude_! Can't you just let this go? Just once? Ugh! You are so anal, about _everything_!" 

Lily was taken aback, but didn't seem to get the idea. "You...you..._two_ detentions then!" 

"Come on, Steph, let's get out of here. Lily _obviously_ doesn't relate," Sirius said harshly.

"_Excuse me_?" Lily said. 

"Oh come on! You're so uptight, you've probably never made out in the Astronomy Tower! Hell, you've probably never made out. Period! Let's go!" Sirius half-shouted, then grabbed Stephanie Lee's hand and stormed out. Lily was in shock. Was she really that uptight? Was she really a...prude? She was mad, but...she was also regretful. Sirius had been right, she hadn't ever made out before, not even in the tower. Lily felt her eyes welling up. No! She wouldn't cry!

Lily turned around and gave Remus a glare. "Well, _thanks _for all your help with THAT situation," she said, her voice acidic. Lily stormed out, without another word, and headed for her dorm.

*********************

"Lily, is there something..._wrong_?" her best friend, Diana asked. She glanced at Lily tentatively, then nudged Lily's other friend, Sarah.

"Yeah, you seemed kind of...angry last night, when you went to bed. And...er...well, you seem...kind of angry now, too," said Sarah. 

Lily moaned under her breath. She hated questions, and couldn't stand answering ones that had obvious answers. Of _course_ she was mad. She was also deep in thought. She had stayed up almost all night, trying to think of a time when she had had real fun, and had broken a few rules. 

"No, I'm NOT mad. Haven't you already asked me that question like, ten times already?" Lily said in annoyance.

"Er, actually, no. That was the first time we asked you," said Diana. 

Diana and Sarah had been her best friends since year one, and they were all very comfortable with each other. They were all pretty aware of what each other's likes and dislikes were. However, if they couldn't ask what was wrong, how else were they supposed to find out? Diana was a pretty girl, with bright blue eyes and long blonde hair. Freckles scattered over her petite nose, and slightly round face. Sarah was short and stocky, with a deranged sense of humor. She had blondish brown hair, cut in a short bob. 

"Do you guys think I'm...a prude?" Lily asked.

"Well, that was actually very irrelevant, and completely off subject, but, I'm sorry, what was the question again?" Sarah asked, as she realized what Lily had actually asked. It was very tricky to answer, as neither wanted to say she WAS a prude-- Lily would not be too happy. 

"I said...do you think I'm a prude? As in, do you think I have no fun, or...well, I'm not, am I? I mean...I have broken the rules before, haven't I? I mean, come on, I do all the time, don't I?" Lily asked, hopefully. 

Neither Diana or Sarah responded. Or, they didn't have time to think up an answer that could go either way, because Lily sighed heavily, and slumped her shoulders. "I knew it...I AM a prude!" 

Diana looked at Sarah again, eyebrows raised. They had never encountered this problem before. 

"Well, no more! I will not be...uptight...or...irritable...or _straight-backed _anymore! No sir, not me!" she said. "In fact, I've forgotten my Transfiguration book in our dorm, and you know what? I'm _not _going to get it. How's _that_ for wild?" Diana and Sarah muffled their giggles and nodded. 

***********************

Lily waltzed into Transfiguration five minutes late and sat down. 

"Ms. Evans? Why, may I ask, are you late?" Professor McGonacgall asked sternly.

"Well, I was...I was...I was..." Lily began smoothly, but soon forgot what she was going to say. She had spent that entire five minutes, formulating something clever and nonchalant to say, something that would make everyone think she didn't give a damn. However, things were not working out well. Actually saying these things to McGonagall's face was harder than it seemed. 

"Don't do it again," McGonagall snapped, and went back to the blackboard with her pointer, tapping on the hand movements involved in the spell they were doing that day. 

Lily sighed and nodded. It had pained her to make a fool of herself in front of the class, but it pained her more that McGonagall thought her to be such a goody two shoes, she didn't even take off any points. Lily made up her mind- she was going to change her image. She was going to break the rules...."_Tonight!" _Lily thought to herself. 

**********************

Lily pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and tip-toed out with her friends. Diana and Sarah looked at each other uncertainly. They did break the rules occasionally, but they didn't know about breaking them with Lily. Lily wasn't the stealthiest person, and she definitely was not that experienced. "You sure you want to....randomly wander the halls in order to break a few rules, Lils?" Sarah asked. 

"Yes! Now stop asking questions!" Lily snapped.

By this time, they were in a hall they didn't quite recognized, after the staircase had changed directions on them. Sarah stumbled and fell, as she tripped over a large...alive object. 

"Mrs. Norris!" Diana exclaimed, and looked around for a place to hide. She ran frantically down he narrow hallway they were in and went into a broom closet. Sarah had run the very opposite way, into where Lily didn't see. Lily did not see what the big deal was. Mrs. Norris was simply a cat, and cats didn't do much. But as she thought how ridiculous they were being, she heard footsteps down the hall, headed straight for her. 

__

Filch? she thought. How did he get here so quickly? She shook her head and did not ponder it any longer, as she ran down the other hall her friends had not gone down. She ran, really not bothering to keep the clicking of her shoes down, or bothering to be surreptitious. Lily had totally forgotten about that, and her instinct to stay out of trouble had kicked in. She spotted the main exit, outside to the lake and to the Whomping Willow. She'd be safe outside, right? Filch didn't patrol outside, she'd be safe there. It was nearly 3 in the morning, as Lily had left the common room at an ungodly hour, in attempt to really_, really _break the rules. She pushed open the door, and tiptoed outside, realizing just how loud she had been. She closed the door quietly, and went out by the other side of the castle, and sat down behind a bush. Her heart was racing at a speed faster than light. 

__

What if I get caught? What if I'm not a prefect anymore? What if...oh no, someone's coming! 

She peered above the bush and saw...a horse? No, it was a deer...no...A stag! A _stag_ was galloping toward the side of the castle with a shaggy black dog at his heel. They stopped right in front of her, conveniently enough, and stood there for a few seconds, at first, doing nothing, then, Lily realized, they were slowly changing. It was slow, but Lily was fascinated and watched, entranced. Who _were _theses people? They both were finished and James playfully punched Sirius on the arm. 

"Another successful night, eh?" 

"Hah! That was a gas," Sirius said. 

Lily suddenly gasped rather loudly as she realized exactly who they were. James and Sirius stopped dead, and turned around to see who was staring at them. There was a long, dead silence hanging in the hair. 

A/N: Good? Bad? Tell me, please. I stayed up pretty late to finish writing this one. 


	3. Dealings Done, Dealings Changed!

Disclaimer: Usual disclaimer applies.

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily's mouth was slightly ajar as she stared at the two boys before her. Weren't they animals just a few minutes before? Weren't they? Hadn't they been a stag and a dog? She blinked and rubbed her eyes, then looked up again to see if James and Sirius were still really there. James shook his head disbelievingly, but Sirius grabbed her arm aggressively and dragged her into the castle. James followed numbly, but the panic was starting to set into him. Sirius was angry and mad, and on top of it all, he was scared. Being a illegal animagus hadn't really bothered them before, but only because they had never gotten caught. And to get caught by the strictest prefect to ever walk the planet? Somehow, that made matters seem worse. Wow, their luck had run out quickly. 

Sirius hadn't really bothered to keep the ruckus down, as he nearly stampeded down the halls, and into the common room. Surprisingly enough, the didn't get caught by Filch-- but they had already gotten caught for enough that night, hadn't they? Sirius almost threw Lily onto one of the couches near the fire, and glared at her as a fierce, male wolf would do. James was still shocked, nervous even. Lily Evans. The girl he...sort of liked...definitely had some dirt on them. Did she realize it? Lily was the first to break the odd silence. 

"You...you guys...are animagi? You're _animagi_? I've checked...but I've checked the list! Only McGonagall's on there. You can't be one..." she rambled. 

"You moron, we're _obviously _illegal. For someone so smart, you sure miss the obvious," Sirius snapped.

"Oh," she said, quite simply. She looked from face to face, wondering what came next. James looked incredulously at Sirius. She hadn't _demanded anything_. She hadn't even mentioned the slightest bit of blackmail. She hadn't put an offer on the table. Sirius looked just as appalled. She really was inexperienced at this, wasn't she? Every time a fellow classmate caught them, they always put a price on the table, and they gambled for a while. Everyone knew it, and everyone hoped to catch them-- they were both loaded, and had plenty to spare. But Lily didn't even say anything. Just..._oh. _

"What's the matter with you two? You look ridiculous with your mouths hanging open like that," Lily said.

"You mean...you don't _want _anything? Aren't you going to _demand_ something?" Sirius asked stupidly. James smacked his forehead and elbowed Sirius very hard. Lily had definitely not been aware she was able to do that . Now, Lily hadn't been aware, but she was a smart girl. She would figure it out, now that Sirius had so openly suggested it. 

"Demand something?" Lily looked from one carefully disguised expression to the other. Her eyebrow was raised as she thought it over. "You mean, like Blackmail?" 

"Er..." Sirius said. He had never really been good with words anyhow. Lily smiled, almost evilly, as she clapped her hands together. James groaned. They were in for it now. There was no use trying to hide anything anymore- she knew, and they might as well play along, or things might get worse. 

"So. What do you want?" James asked miserably. They could've easily gotten away scot-free. Stupid, stupid Sirius! 

"Hm," she said, in fake contemplation. "I wonder...money? Clothes? Self-Humiliation on your behalf?" she stopped though, quite suddenly and dropped the act. Her eyes gained a glazed over affect, and she was now totally serious. The idea was brilliant. She didn't know where it came from, but it was brilliant. Perfect thing to change her image. Perfect to get a taste of just how rule-breaking really felt. 

"Well?" Sirius asked, irritably. She was really dragging things on, with her whole "amazed with her own idea" expression. There was a momentary pause as Lily considered her words. 

All the considering went to waste, as she blurted out in excitement, "I want to be a Marauder." 

James and Sirius, once again exchanged glances. Lily? A Marauder? That would certainly raise eyebrows. She was definitely not Marauder material. She was probably not going to agree to many of the things they would do, and just get in the way. James was on the verge of saying "No way, are you crazy, ho?!" but Lily cut in first. 

"That's my only offer. Either that, or you can say hello to Azkaban," she said. Both of the boy's eyes widened. She wouldn't honestly put them in Azkaban, would she? 

"Well...er...I mean...we've just got to discuss this with Remus and Peter first, alright?" Sirius said, delicately. 

"_No. _Either you say yes _now_, or tomorrow, I'm going to the Professors," she said, that annoying superior glint coming back to her eyes. Really, Lily should never be put in a position of power...

"Ugh...." James moaned, and threw his head into his hands, practically pulling his hair out. This girl was simply impossible. "Fine," he said, almost inaudibly. 

"I'm sorry, what?" Lily asked in a sing-song voice.

"FINE!" James bellowed. 

"Let's shake on it shall we? Make things more formal?" Lily suggested. They all knew that it would bind the contract magically. Handshakes meant more with magic, and Lily knew quite well they wouldn't be able to back out on their word if they shook hands. "Or...should I write up a contract?" Contracts were like hell. James was very suspicious and did not want Lily putting any kind of hex on the contact when he signed it. 

"Er, no. A handshake will be fine," he muttered. "But...you've got to agree to not tell ANYONE about what you've seen and what his deal is all about," he said. And so, they all shook hands.

*********************

Lily tiptoed up into her dormitory, and opened the door slowly. She walked in, and was about to change her clothes when she felt two pairs of eyes glaring angrily from their beds. 

"Er..." she said, and turned around, only to find what she had expected. Two very furious friends by the name of Diana and Sarah. They both would've screamed at Lily for leaving them waiting in the narrow hallway for her to come back, but both Alice and Rachel were sound asleep. They settled for, instead, screaming in low whispers. It was hard to distinguish what they were saying, since they were not only "screaming" in whispers, but at the same time too. Lily apologized profusely, and then proceded quickly to what had actually happened. She finished the story and Diana and Sarah looked shocked. Diana, being a very clever, and observant witch, pointed out one little problem. 

"Er...weren't you..._not _supposed tell anyone about what actually happened?" Lily's eyes widened considerably, and she sweared.

"Damnit! Now...oh no...I've never made a deal like this. What'll happen when they find out? They should know by now, as you can always tell, but I mean, what about the deal?" Lily was now very confused again. She had just made a perfectly good deal, where everything have been very advantageous for her. But what happened when a snag like this happened?

"Well...I suppose you'll have to ask them about that tomorrow," Sarah suggested. "But I'm horribly tired, and we've got about...3 hours to sleep before it's time to get up and get ready for classes. If you don't mind..." Sarah didn't continue talking, and flopped down on her bed. She probably fell sleep before she hit the pillow. 

*********************

Lily hardly slept, and got up groggily the next morning. She got up earlier than usual, which was strange, since she got less than three hours of sleep, and got dressed quickly, not even bothering to shower like she routinely did. Lily was eager to reformulate the deal, and be in the Great Hall, before the boys got there. To her surprise, as she walked in to the huge Great Hall, all four Marauders were already there and waiting for her. Sirius looked angry, Remus looked grim, James looked thoughtful, and Peter was...well, eating. 

Lily wlaked up to them, and said, "Well, I suppose you know I told them already?"

"Yeah. Could tell last night, Woke me up, it did. I thought we had a deal?" Sirius said. 

"Yeah...I totally forgot! But, my friends, I swear, they won't tell anything," she said.

"That's great then. Everything's settled. You're friends won't tell, and the deal's off since you broke our magical unwritten contract," James said.

"Whoa! Wait a sec! The deal is definitely NOT off!" she said. 

"Oh, yes it is! You broke the contract! It's off!" James said, just as ferociously. 

"Ugh! FINE! I'm going to tell Professor Dumbledore, right now!" said Lily.

James eyes looked like they might pop out of his head at that moment, but Remus cut in. "Look, how about we...er, _compromise? _Like, since Lily broke the contract, she can still try being a Marauder, but only for...a month? Instead of like...forever?" 

As much as Lily didn't want only a month as Marauder, it'd have to do. She had, after all, broken the contract they had made, only minutes after they had shaken on it. James too, still felt strongly that they shouldn't help her at all. But, the fact remained: she had a lot of dirt on them, and what she had done really hadn't been that serious. She had only told her two best friends, and, unless the Minister of Magic and Professor Dumbledore were her best friends, it wasn't that much of a problem. 

And so, this time, all five of them shook hands on it. Thus, the _fifth_ Marauder sat down with them, and ate _her_ breakfast. 

A/N: Good, bad, terrible? I dunno, I think there was a lot o back and forth in this chapter. Didn't know quite were to direct it. Review, perhaps?


	4. Technicolored Common Room

Disclaimer: Don't have legal rights to Harry Potter book series characters, etc., etc....

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STOP! Before you begin reading my fantabulous story, I must, repeat, _must _thank my first 6 reviewers. It may not be a lot, but it's a lot for me! =D Thanks you, readers, it means a lot to me! You make me feel loved. MUAH!

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily Evans was ecstatic. People were talking about Lily and the Marauders. They were actually talking. About _her._ And for once, it wasn't complaining about how she had busted so-and-so the other night, but because she was hanging out with one of the coolest, reckless groups in school. Oh, sure, there was complaining, as Lily heard a loud obnoxious girl say, "I cannot believe Lily Evans even gets to stand within fifty feet of _my _Sirius!" But, it was not the usual sort of complaining, and that, my friends, made Lily a very happy camper. 

Mind you, she hadn't actually done anything yet. She hadn't actually pulled any pranks. She had only been sitting with the Marauders at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for two days, and usually not saying a thing through the entire meal. Listening to them talk was enough, and she thought that if she put in her bit of the conversation, it would turn into a nasty row. So, sitting silently, and savoring these moments of bliss was good enough for her. Lily had never thought of herself as socially challenged, but, when she merely began sitting with this "cool" group of kids, Lily realized just how much she missed went on about the school. All sorts of flying rumors and gossip came her way, and she noticed things she had never noticed before. For example, Mrs. Norris and Mr. Filch were telepathically connected, and were formally connected at the hip? Why, Lily had never known. Did I mention how the rumors fly? Sort of like pigs...

At lunch on the third day of their deal, James scooted in his chair and gave everyone around him a pointed look. Sirius, Remus, and Peter all scooted in. Lily scooted in too, but she wondered what for. She did not want to scoot any closer to Peter than necessary; he smelled as if he hadn't showered in days. They all put their heads together and James said in a low whisper, "So, we've got this huge prank underway, that we've set up in the Slytherin's dorms. You know, for the upcoming Quidditch match against them," James said, more to Lily than anyone else. The other Marauders probably already knew about this anyway, since it took weeks of preparation. 

Lily knew what he was talking about. Both James and Sirius were on the Quidditch team for Gryffindor, and ever since they joined the team in second year, they put a memorable prank on the house's team they would play soon. It was tradition, and they did it every time. Everyone knew about the seasonal Marauder Quidditch pranks. Slytherins always got it the worst, and Lily was sure they were all bracing themselves for a blow. This year's outcome was very important for Charlie Weasley, the team captain's last year at Hogwarts, and every match counted. He needed to win the cup just one more year before he left. 

And so, James and Sirius had a great prank planned for the entire Slytherin common room. They were going to changed everything in the common room to look like it was a Gryffindor common room, so the morning of the Quidditch match, they would be very confused. Even the boys and girls dorms would look like that of Gryffindor style, and so would their bathrooms. Lily herself thought it was a wonderful idea, until James had told her to be ready the next night at around two in the morning to help change the room from green, silver, and dull dungeon grey, to red and scarlet. Lily had not known she was expected to help-- she was so used to the marauder pranks she was doing now...none. 

*************************

Lily tip-toed down the stair-case and into the common room, where James, Sirius, and Peter were waiting. Sirius looked irritable, as he was missing on sleeping hours, though he had thought the prank up himself.

"Ugh! _You _are late, Evans, and we could be using this valuable time to be pranking, and then, ultimately, sleeping!" he snapped. Lily was in no mood either. She had never broken into the Slytherin Common room to throw a huge prank on them before...

"Look, _you, _I was only _five minutes late_, so shut your trap, nit wit!" she snapped back, just as irritable.

"I don't have to! WE are doing YOU a favor by bringing you out of your hermit shell! And you have the balls to be late!" 

"No, Sweet Sirius, dear. If you haven't forgotten, _you _are the one with the balls! And I AM NOT A HERMIT!" Lily screamed the last half, and was then immediately bombarded with four frantic "Shhh's!" 

"Keep your voice down! We're almost to the Slytherin dungeons," Remus said. Lily hadn't even noticed that she had left the Common Room and was now in a dimly lit corridor with walls made of stone and dreary looking paintings. They got to a completely bare stone wall with only two torches hanging on it.

James whispered, "Dragon's Blood," and a small opening in the wall slid open. All five of them climbed in one after the other, into a lavishly furnished and decorated common room. There was elegant paintings of famous witches and wizards, expensive looking and cushy couches, and a huge fireplace that was almost as big as the dungeon wall they had just walked through. Almost everything was either a shade of green, or a shade of grey. There wasn't much of any other color else where, except in the paintings. 

"Well...here's the deal. Sirius, Remus, and Peter, you guys should get started on the common room. I will go up to the boy's dormitories and work on the boy's dorms, while you, Lily, will work on the girl's dorms," said James. Lily's eyes widened.

"You mean, by myself? Go by myself to the girl's dormitories?" she asked, appalled.

"Uh, yes. By yourself. No boys can even get up the girls stair case, genius," James teased. 

"But...what if I get caught? I can't go by myself!" Lily was frantic. 

"Calm down, Lily, calm down!" Remus said, placing a calming hand on her shoulder. "It's not that hard. You know the spell to change something from one color to another. Just don't trip on anything or something, and don't shake anyone awake. Slytherins sleep like logs, I swear," Remus said, reassuringly. Lily nodded, convincing herself. If she wanted to be bad, she had to do something first. She nodded and numbly began walking toward a staircase. 

"Er...Lily? That's the boy's dormitories. You'll want to be heading to your right," said Sirius. 

*************************

Lily jumped down the stairs two at a time. She had done it. She had really done it! Every single room now had scarlet and gold....everything! She was bad. Oh, she was _so_ bad. She felt adrenaline pumping through her, and she was more awake than she'd ever felt before. She was on the last jump before getting to the bottom, when she tripped while doing a victory dance on the steps, and fell on her face. She looked up to find grinning faces. 

"Did ya do it?" asked Peter.

"Yes! Yes! YesYesYes! I. Did. It!" Lily exclaimed. 

"Congrats. I just need to tidy up the common room..." said Sirius, blushing slightly. Lily looked around, speechless. The room was a vibrant swirl of green, scarlet, gold, and silver. It looked like the mind of a stoned drug-addict. Lily felt slightly dizzy as she followed the colors around the room. 

"What happened?" she asked. 

"Er...well...Peter here," Sirius shot him an angry look, "fumbled up the spell a tab bit."

"Ahem...yes, and Sirius helped to fumble it up," said an rather amused Remus. Sirius did not comment any further, and Peter continued to apologize profusely. 

"Look, let's just...fix this up, shall we? Then we can hop on out of here and thank the gods for sleep," James said. 

"Alright, Remus and Peter, you do that wall, Lily you--" James stopped mid-sentence though, and tilted his head slightly. Remus and Sirius seemed to be doing the same thing, and Peter had his face scrunched up in concentration. 

"Someone's coming!" whispered a panicked Peter. Peter quickly transformed into a rat and scampered away. Sirius seemed to think it was a good idea too, and transformed into the black shaggy dog, then darted into a dark corner, where his black fur would discreetly hide him. James looked around for a place to hide, and Remus was already cramming himself into some crevasse behind a chair. Lily stood rooted to the spot. They were going to get caught! They were this close to getting out, and now, they were going to get caught! James began to run toward a hiding spot, but stopped when he realized Lily wasn't even moving and inch; she wasn't even searching for a place to hide. He groaned silently, and grabbed her limp hand, dragging her with him to hide underneath the large sofa by the fireplace. 

They both squeezed underneath the small space between the floor and the couch, and Lily trying to control the beating of her heart. She was sure the person coming could hear it's thumping, it was so loud. She took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself. Lily loosened her vice-like grip on James hand, which she was still holding. There was probably an imprint of her hand on his now, as well as deep fingernail marks. 

The person who had come down was a third year with long, stringy locks of unhealthy looking dirty blond hair and large, scary looking blue eyes against ghostly white skin. She went by the name of Morgan Shepard, and apparently, hadn't noticed the change of decor in her common room. 

"Gosh, I've got the worst headache..." muttered Morgan. She opened her groggy eyes slightly more than the slits that were currently open enough for her viewing pleasure, and she briefly glanced around the room. She shook her head disbelievingly. "What a bizarre dream...or nightmare," she said. 

Lily had to stifle her giggles at that particular comment. James was grinning too, but nudged her as much as he could in the position they were currently in. "Hm..._is _this a dream? I mean...I thought I just woke up from a dream with a headache," Morgan said. "Maybe it's one of those, wake up in your dream only to have another dream," she analyzed. 

"Or, maybe...well...let's see. If this is really my dream...then I can make whatever I want happen. So...I want...er..._that _fire to go out," she suggested, then began to close her eyes as if in deep concentration. "Come on! Go out!" 

James looked at Lily. "Watch this," he said, then took out his wand, and pointed it at the fire. "_Aquarius!" _he said, and a fountain of water from his wand doused some of the flames. Thus, the room was now extremely dark. 

"Hm...It worked...I guess this really is my dream then. I...can't really see any of those far-out colors anymore though," she said.

James took his chance and grabbed Lily's hand again and nearly dragged her out from underneath the couch. He closed his eyes for a moment to adjust to the dark, and then began heading for the exit. He could see that the other Marauders realized this was there chance, as he heard a lot of stumbling, and something crashing. James felt around for the wall, and pushed it open. Light poured into the common room, from the torches lighting the corridor, and James could spot Sirius, Peter, and Remus coming forward too. It didn't matter if the girl heard them now. They were home free, and she hadn't seen their faces. James quickly closed the dungeon opening, and promptly began running back to Gryffindor common room. 

They got there, and everyone left out a breath they hadn't known they were holding. There was silence between the four as they all knew what each other was saying: "We were hell of a lot lucky to get out of that." 

Lily's face broke into a grin. She couldn't help herself. She jumped up and down, silently singing a victory song. She stopped and continued to smiled. 

"Well, looks like I am _not _a prude after all," she said, looking sweetly at Sirius, and then began toward her own dorm. 

A/N: I think I made that longer that usual. Hoped you like it. Lily's first step to becoming a total rule-breaker. Woohoo. R-e-v-i-e-w!


	5. That's Lame!

Disclaimer: Yep, the characters aren't mine. How'd you know? 

****

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily had hardly gotten any sleep the previous night, due mostly to the fact that she only had a few hours to sleep because of her prank-pulling. But, even in those few hours, she hadn't slept a wink. And, when her eyes had finally closed, and she had slept about a good half hour, Lily could already feel the hands of her roommate shaking her awake. 

"Lily! Lily, wake up!" Sarah shouted. "Lils it's time for breakfast, and then, we've _got _to go see the Quidditch match! It's this morning, Lils, us against _Slytherin_, of course." Lily simply rolled over, and after much persistence from her friends, she finally rolled onto her back and opened her eyes just slightly. 

"_Don't _call me Lils..." she muttered, and stumbled out of bed. Lily went into the bathroom and washed her face. She looked in the mirror, and saw that she looked horrible. There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair was a huge knot, and her skin had the sort of dull glow you get from lack of sleep. Despite all of this and how groggy she felt, Lily couldn't help but crack a grin when she realized just _why _she looked so horrible. Lily Evans looked horrible because she had been out pranking the Slytherins, with the _Marauders_. _That _had a nice ring to it. 

After washing her face and getting dressed, Lily found she wasn't very tired after all, and actually felt really alive. "Gee Lily, you look awful, but you sure are happy...Did you get enough sleep last night?" 

"Well...no, I'd say not. No more than an hour, I'd say," Lily tried to say casually, as the entered the Great Hall.

"Uh, why?" asked Diana. She had a suspicious look on her face. Before Lily could answer though, Lily felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around lazily, to find a group of about five or six angry looking Slytherins. 

"Look, Evans, it took all of us about an hour to get out of our Common room, and I'm still feeling dizzy!" exclaimed Georgiana O'Brian.

"Yeah, and our Quidditch team probably feels sick right about now from all those disgusting colors!" said Andy Sexton. 

"Yes, the Marauders have the nerve to transform our common room into some sort of circus!" 

"And, what would you like _me _to do about it?" Lily asked. They all looked at each other expectantly. What _did_ they expect her to do about it? They had only gone to her because she was seen hanging out with the Marauders more and more, and because Remus was no where to be seen that day, Sirius and James had already been up for hours practicing, and Peter...well, no one really wanted to talk to Peter. So, they immediately went to Lily Evans. 

"Well, you _are _a prefect, aren't you?" asked Will Stark, his voice full of arrogance. Probably more so that Potter ever was--and that, my friends, is a lot. 

"Yes, but, _again, _what do you want me to _do_?" asked Lily. Stark was making her nervous; he sounded all business. 

"Well, you're the prefect. You should know what to do. Or are you an idiot like the rest of them?" he asked. 

"Why don't you ask the Head Boy and Girl? They'll probably know. Or you're head of house should know what to do with your _retarded _common room," said Diana. 

"Yeah, I'm wondering why you guys never noticed your common room was multi-colored in the first place...I would've told the Professors or something to change it right away," said Sarah. 

"_Whatever," _said Venus Parkinson. "Let's go and watch our team win today." They all left, very grumpy, but not as mean as usual. They were probably still dizzy from leaving their common room. 

"What exactly happened?" asked Diana, and Lily went off on her long tale. She explained every detail and every passing second. Lily was still feeling the adrenaline from the night before. She seriously had never felt that way before, and her heart had never been beating so fast. Except maybe when she had forgotten her homework and she had to tell the teacher, but that was a whole different feeling entirely. When Lily had finished talking, James and Sirius dragged into the Hall and plopped down at the table, and began stuffing food into their mouths. They were absolutely ravenous. 

"So...hungry...tired...practicing...all...morning..." said a Sirius, in-between chewing. 

"Man, I am sho hungree, ish reediscoolesh!' said James, not even pausing between chews. His hair was completely windswept, yet he put his hand in his hair to ruffle it more. 

"Ugh, stop!" Lily said in disgust. "Don't talk with your mouth full and don't mess up your hair!" 

"POTTER! BLACK! GET OUT HERE _NOW_!" yelled a ferocious looking being by the name Charlie Weasley, who burst in at that moment. "The game starts in TEN MINUTES! And you two are in here stuffing your faces! You've already had enough resting time! COME OUT HERE NOW!" he yelled, completely irrational. 

"Alright! We're coming! God! You're so psycho, Charlie, just breathe," said Sirius. 

"Yeah, completely mental!" said James.

"Just get. out. here. NOW!" Yelled Charlie. They scrambled to their feet and followed Charlie briskly out the door. 

********************************************

Even though Lily had gotten outside late, Diana, Sarah, and her had gotten fairly good seat. They had a good view of the pitch, and had only one blind spot, which was way below them, where the players hardly ever went. The players were circling the field, warming up for the upcoming game. Lily looked at Sirius and saw he was not circling, but had stopped at one of the stands and was talking to a girl. Obviously flirting, as Weasley came over to yell at him more. James was on his very expensive broom, though Lily couldn't distinguish one from the other. He was flying quickly around the pitch in fluid-like motion, swiftly passing by everyone. He really did look handsome with his hair blown back from his face, the wind running through his hair and catching his breath. 

__

"Lily Evans, you did not just think that," she said. However, she did feel a bit of longing as he flew over them all. Lily wished she could fly well too. It looked very nice, and the wind felt pleasant blowing all around her. It gave her a feeling in her stomach similar to that of last night...

The players got into position, seekers at the top, ready to search for the snitch, and the rest of the team in formation below. Weasley shook Gunther's hand, though he had a very pained look on his face while doing so, and then, the whistle was blown. The game began...

************************************

Lily sauntered into the common room, where everyone was celebrating the Quidditch win. They had only lost one match so far that year, and it was against Ravenclaw. There was a huge crowd in the middle of the room, where James and Sirius were in the middle, no doubt. Smoke was rising up from the middle of the group, and the odd smell of burning rubber was present. Lily arched her eyebrows and began to get irritated. They were pulling some kind of stunt again.

Lily walked up to the circle of people and began pushing people out of the way. "Excuse me...move...excuse me...yeah...okay, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" she yelled, finally pushing through a large barrier of people.

"_What _ARE YOU DOING?" she asked, after seeing just exactly what they were doing. James and Sirius were sitting on opposite ends of the table, playing poker. James hands were blackened with soot, and Sirius's were sparkling clean. 

"Hah, Jamesie Wamsie! Gotcha again! Royal Flush!" said Sirius, gloating. James rolled his eyes and put down his cards, which were completely unmatching and useless. He set the cards down, and the set on fire immediatly, after squeaking, "You're burned, Loser!" 

"I'll show you Royal Flush..." said James, taking out his wand and squirting water all over Sirius. Sirius barked out loud and made to draw his own wand.

"STOP! You two are so immature! Both of you! Detention for gambling and using dangerous cards!" said Lily forcefully. She couldn't believe the nerve of those two. "Everyone! Scatter! NOTHING to see here!" she said, as everyone grudgingly trudged away. 

"Detention?" they both asked. "Er...Lily..." said James. 

"James, maybe you should have a talk with Lily about the rules," said Sirius. "After all, she's _your _girlfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend," growled Lily. James ignored it and grabbed her arm, dragging her toward the portrait hole. "Where are we going?! It's...it's too late to be out! And we've already pulled a prank. We don't have to pull anymore," Lily said nervously. As much as she liked pulling pranks, she couldn't bear getting caught. She was still very paranoid. 

After they walked a while, James stopped and said, "Lily. There are a few unwritten rules about being a Marauder. If you want to be a Marauder, you can't give us detention. You can't rat us out. You can't talk to other people about our holy Marauder secrets...er...there are a lot of others, but like I said, we didn't write them down. So, I'm not remembering it all." 

Lily rolled her eyes, "That is _so_ lame." 

"It is not!"

"It definitely is." 

"It's not as lame as you are," said James.

"Well, I'm not lame, so that's a bad comparison." said Lily.

"Well, it's definitely _not_ lame."

"Yes, those rules are so lame, no wonder Remus never gives you detention," said Lily.

"Oh yeah? Well, name something our rules are lamer then," he said.

"Hm... it's lamer than _you_!" she said. 

"What's lame is your insulting abilities..."

"Fine...it's lamer than the Slytherin Quidditch team!" Lily shouted, in attempt to make an un-lame comeback. 

"Hm, harsh! Does that make the Gryffindor Quidditch team not lame, at all? Spectacular in fact? Especially a certain chaser?" James wiggled his eyebrows.

"Well...er..." Lily blushed. "Yes...I suppose you weren't bad at flying. I was watching you...wish I could fly like that myself," she said, embarrassedly. 

"Really? You think I fly well?" he asked.

"Yeah. You fly a heck of a lot better than me. It looks really fun," she said.

"Well...I could teach you..." James was now blushing slightly too.

"Teach me?" Lily was confused. Teach her what? Certainly not flying...

"Teach you how to fly, nitwit," he said. "But only if you follow the Marauder unwritten rules." 

"Er...okay, then. Tomorrow...in the afternoon? Meet me in the Common Room at 3?" asked Lily. She thought she was getting the better end of the stick. Lily definitely did not know all of the rules, since they were unwritten, and plus she was get to fly a broomstick. That sounded like fun. They nodded, and walked back together the common room in companionable silence. 

A/N: Sorry this chapter kind of sucks, but I had to put it in order to lead up to another event: Lily learning how to fly! Exciting, no? Just you wait...

THANKS to all my reviewers! Woohoo!! Yay! AND thank you for those of you who put me on your fav. List. That makes me excited and feel loved!


	6. Falling From The Sky

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters which J.K. Rowling so kindly allowed us to use in these meager fantasies of the Harry Potter world. I do own the story though. 

****

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily checked her watch as she sat idly in the library. She really had no business there, but she had nothing else to do. 

"Really, aren't I supposed to be a Marauder?" she asked herself sarcastically. A Marauder with nothing to do...that was simply nonsense. Lily had already been in the group for about a month. Their deal had been for three months- still plenty of time for her develop a wild-child attitude. 

So, back to square one- Lily had nothing to do but wait. She was waiting for 2:30, when she would go up to her dorm and prepare for her crash course in flying. Lily could not wait, and yet, she was so jittery and nervous. Flying on a broomstick sounded _very_ dangerous, especially if you did not know what you were doing. Lily Evans really, _really_ did not know what she was doing. Still, she was compelled to try it. She didn't want to seem as if she was so excited about it; wouldn't that make her look like a dork? So, here she sat, in the library, acting as if she had better things to do. Right, the library was _so_ much cooler. 

She checked her watch compulsively until it was 2:26. Close enough. She grabbed her belongings and walked briskly up the stairs, almost running. If she hadn't walked so fast, she was afraid her knees might have buckled beneath her she was quaking so badly. Lily dashed through the common room and jetted into her dorm room. She then paused and began to pace. What did one need when flying? 

Well, the Quidditch players always had on some for of padding...where would she get that? And, well, they had those neat sort of shoes on...sort of like boots. She didn't have any of those either. And a cape? Why, that would look silly! It was only for the uniform, wasn't it? But, maybe it had to do with some sort of aerial involvement or something really important...And a broom! Lily didn't _have _a broom! Lily grimaced- where would she get all of this? Seriously, it must all cost a fortune.

"Well, I suppose I ought to improvise, otherwise I'll fall off my...er..._nonexistent _broom and die!" Lily said, to herself. 

Her head darted around the room. It was a mess. There were clothes and makeup strewn around, and all of their beds were unmade. Some of the drawers were open in their haste to find something to wear, and the curtains were drawn messily open. There had to be something in this mess that would help her. Lily grabbed two pillows and took the ribbon keeping part of the curtain open, and tied one pillow on her back and one on her front. She looked in the mirror and nodded...it looked nothing like the hard armor-like protection the players wore, but it could help, couldn't it? She then put on some black combat boots she sometimes wore on the weekends in winter, and tied her hair up in a high ponytail, so her hair wasn't in her face. Lily looked over herself again, and smiled. This ought to do it. As Lily exited the room, she stopped and hastily grabbed her dragon skin gloves- they should come in handy gripping that broom!

Lily walked into the near empty common room. She had finished her "uniform" just in time. It was 3:01, and the few people lounging around looked at her strangely as she passed by with as much dignity as she could possibly muster. James was sitting in one of the best chairs there, which was facing the fire. He didn't seem to be paying attention and was writing with vigor on a piece of parchment. 

"Ahem..." Lily cleared her throat. James shook his head in surprise and looked up. His eyes widened, and he promptly began laughing. 

"WHAT are you wearing?" he asked her.

"Have you forgotten? You've forgotten haven't you," Lily said, now relatively cross. 

"What, that there was a masquerade ball today? Apparently I have," he said.

"NO! That you've got to teach me how to fly!" 

"Of course I haven't forgotten. Doesn't explain why you're wearing _that_."

"Because...because..." she was very flustered. "BECAUSE we're flying!" Lily could not find a more reasonable answer. Wasn't it obvious? She had to protect herself from the hard ground below. He didn't honestly expect her to go flying without appropriate wear, did he?

He began to laugh again, and didn't seem to stop for much longer. "Lily, just go with me to the pitch. I hope by then everything will be a bad dream and I can get you into normal clothes."

___________________________________________________

Lily walked with James to the equipment closet, which was located inside the locker room where Quidditch players prepared for the game. He opened a large wooden cabinet and threw out hard looking shoulder protection, knee pads, and some small lace up boots. She put them on, but it took her a while, as she at first tried to but the shoulder guards on her knees. Finally, James handed her an old looking, wiry broom. It was an old starshooter, one of the older models. It's handle was knotty and crooked looking. Lily looked at it apprehensively. 

"I'm not supposed to ride that, am I?" 

"Unless you want to ride in the air without a broom, then yes. It's pretty slow, but you don't need a fast broom at this point," James said.

"It lookes...unstable," Lily said, eyeing it.

"It's not. Just trust me on this one, okay?" James said, with far too much confidence in his voice. Lily simply nodded, and then walked out onto the vast open area where they would be practicing. The looked even bigger when there were no peopel crowding the stands. 

"Okay, first thing's first. Put your broom on the ground and put your hand over it. Then say 'up.'" James instructed.

Lily put her hand over the broom and said, "Up." The broom did not go up. _"Up." _Lily said slightly louder. The broom did not even move. "UP!!!" Lily shouted, losing a bit of patience. The broom shot up out of the air and into her hand. Lily stumbled backward from the blow and landed on her butt. James looked like he wanted to laugh badly, but settled for retrained snickering. Lily got up grumpily.

"You've got to loosen up. You're too uptight. Too..._restricted_," said James, knowledgably. 

"Well, I _did it_. Is that all? Are we going to actually _fly_ now?" Lily asked.

"Er, if you really want to..." James didn't think she wasn't going to be a very good flier after that demonstration. "Well, hold the broom in between your legs, and sort of sit on it I suppose...then stomp on the ground and think about lifting up. You should go up in the air," he said. James was starting to get on Lily's nerves. He was a good flier, but his head seemed to be inflating by the second because he knew more about this than Lily did.

Lily put the broom in-between her legs and was about to stomp lightly when she stopped and remembered what she had just done. If she said it forcefully first time around, she should lift up. Lily wanted to show James's sneering face that she could fly. She closed her eyes and though of herself zooming through the air at top speed, the wind rushing past her, sending that chill in her stomach. She then stomped so forcefully on the ground, the broom shot up the air, and Lily was sent screaming, lurched upward.

"AHHHH!" Lily yelled, as the broom went totally berserk. Her hands were sweaty and slippery as they lost contact with the broom handle, and she was jerked off the broom and landed with an unpleasant thump on the dirt ground below. Lily was aching, but she didn't really feel angry about it until she realized James was on the ground too, laughing hysterically. Lily jumped to her feet, angry and glared at him, hoping her death stare would make him stop laughing. He didn't get the message as his eyes were closed as he continued to laugh jovially. 

"You are such an idiot! Instead of helping me, you're just laughing! You think you know EVERYTHING about Quidditch! You are so arrogant!" she shouted. Lily was beyond embarrassed and very angry he had the nerve to laugh at her. She had been scared stiff. 

James stopped laughing, but the mirth definitely had not died from his eyes. He looked up at her and tutted. "Tsk, Tsk, Evans. Thou shall not insult another Marauder! States so clearly in rule 102," he said innocently, with a slight bit of sarcasm in his voice. 

"Ugh!" She was on the verge of saying that rule was fake, but then, she _had _promised to go by the rules. "Fine. I'll meet you here next week at the same time and place. I hope you'll be more of a teacher and less of a jerk," she said, walking away before he could talk about any more rules.

_________________________________________________

Lily was absolutely annoyed. Every time Lily did something slightly mean, or sometimes, even just being common sensical, James would say a rule. Lily had _finally_ said one of the rules was fake, but James simply said, "Thou shall not doubt thy Marauder rules." She was completely and utterly on the verge of murder, but had then restrained herself from strangling James because she was positive one of the unwritten rules was "Thou shall not kill another Marauder." She shook her head and finished polishing her prefect's badge. Tonight was her night patrol the halls with Remus. 

She met up with him in from of the entrance hole, an began her rounds. She caught several students walking about after hours, and completely forgot about being un-strict and carefree. She was so annoyed, she didn't even care at the moment. It was later in the night that things seemed to quiet down, and the end of their rounds was drawing near. Lily did not like the deafening silence that surrounded them, so she tried to strike up a conversation. 

"So, doing anything this weekend? It's Hogmeade weekend you know," she said, casually. 

"Er, yeah, I suppose I'll go to Hogsmeade. Sort of loses its charm after a while though, don't you think so? But it's always fun with James and Sirius. You're coming too, of course," he said. 

"Well, I don't know if I'll make it in time. I mean, I've got my second lesson with James and all..." she said.

"Lessons?"

"Um, yeah...didn't you know? Broom flying lessons with James. I wanted to learn, and so we just sort of made this deal. As long as I follow all your stupid rules," she said. 

"Er...what rules?" Remus asked.

"The 'unwritten Marauder rules.' James said I had to follow them if I wanted to be a Marauder," she said, uncertain now.

"Oh. Well...I didn't know we had rules," Remus said, frowning slightly. 

"Oh. I see." Lily was scowling now. _No rules_? Had Sirius and James simply made them up so she would be annoyed and do some of their chores for them? That was probably why whenever she did something they didn't like, he would simply make up a rule so she would stop. Lily. Was. Furious. 

A/N: Hey! Please Review! Sorry it took so long for me to update. I was out of town, so I couldn't write anything or upload. Also, I got a couple reviews saying Charlie was only 26 as of book 5...I'm sorry, I didn't know! I'm making him older in this story, because it was never actually mentioned in the HP books as to how old he really is. So, I guess it can be pretty flexible, can't it? I'm also too lazy to change it, so I'm sorry, just deal! Heh...^_^; Thanks to ALL my reviewers! I love you all!

. 


	7. Run

Disclaimer: Not mine. 

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily marched back in silence with Remus to the portrait hole. It wasn't like she was keeping quiet on purpose-- Lily just could not speak without screaming some foul thing about James. It was that one time she trusted him; she had made a deal, thinking it was fair, and yet, she had been fooled by James Potter, once again. She now remembered why she had disliked him so much. And what angered her the most? The fact that all the while, he did not look guilty once. James had been so flawlessly carefree the entire time, it made Lily wonder if he even gave a damn. 

__

I did his laundry for that little prat, she thought venomously, as she recalled how he said one of the marauders did all their laundry for the week, and they all alternated. _Yeah right_, she thought.

She almost shouted the password when they got to the portrait hole, and stomped through. The fire crackled merrily, but it was far from what Lily felt. 

"Hey Lils!" said a voice from her left. Sirius, Peter, and James were all lounging around in the common room by the fire, waiting for them. James was the one who had said hello. Lily paused and closed her eyes, perhaps wishing it was not them at that moment, and she could simply go up to her dorm and sleep peacefully, then wake up to find it was some weird dream. 

"Er...Oy, Lils?" James said again. Remus grimaced and made frantic waving motions to stop talking to her. He had drawn enough information to realize what Sirius and James had actually done. He shook his head, but only Sirius and Peter noticed him. Lily turned slowly toward them and gave them a death glare. 

She gritted her teeth and almost growled, "_Don't_ call me Lils." There was a long silence as they all looked at her warily. 

"What's...wrong?" asked Peter, his large blue eyes looking more watery than usual. 

"What's wrong? What's _wrong? _James, I cannot believe you tricked me! I cannot believe you told me their was rules and there aren't, and we made a deal and it wasn't fair, and I did _your laundry_!" she said in a rather long breath. 

"What? I didn't make up that those rules...well, okay, so I made up a few of those rules after a while, and got a little out of hand, but that laundry one was real! I swear!" said James, earnestly. 

"Er...what about laundry? What has Laundry got to do with this?" asked Remus. 

"James told her about how we alternate with the laundry," said Sirius.

"Oh that's a _rule_? We've got rules to begin with?" asked Remus.

"You see? Remus says there's no rules!" said Lily.

"We have got rules, we just don't usually call them rules...you know, like not telling people our secrets, and blabbing, and no pranks on girls the other likes, and you know, all that...well, most of that stuff I kept telling you about," said James.

"Oh, _those _are rules? Well, I knew we weren't supposed to do those things, but I mean...that's really a given, isn't it?" Remus said. 

"See, there _are_ rules, just not...that's just not what they...well...they're not _rules, _they're just..._there_." said Peter. He looked very confused and mixed up. Another long silence followed this statement. Lily felt really silly.

"Oh. Well then...sorry...about that. You know..." said Lily, nodding and swinging her arms back and forth, in an effort to prevent them from hanging limply at her sides. Anything to make her look, or feel, less like an idiot would do. Lily shrugged embarrassedly and turned to leave. She walked two steps toward the girls' staircase, until she heard him again. "Hey, Lily?" James, of course.

She turned around, still feeling extremely stupid. "Yes?"

"Aren't you going to hang around? We won't be leaving for a while, and it'll be er...fun, I suppose," James said.

"Well...I'd love to, but you know we've got class--"

"Oh, shut up. Class is nothing. You've already got straight A's. What will a couple hours of lost sleep do?" asked Sirius. 

Lily looked at them and smiled slightly. They seemed to have forgotten the fight. Lily dwelled on things much longer than normal people would, and took things a lot harder, too. The Marauders weren't normal either though, and, instead of more uptight, they were less so than normal people would be. And Lily was right; they had forgotten the fight already. 

"Sure," Lily said, decidedly. It couldn't be that bad. She could get to know them better. And besides-- She had to see what rules James had made up. 

________________________________________________

Lily skipped down the stairs, two at a time, quite jovially. Diana and Sarah glanced at each other and gave questioning looks. Lily was rarely this openly happy, and the reason for her being that way was almost always obvious. This was one of those times when the reason was not quite as visible. When they had asked her what was up with her, all her response was, "I can't be happy just for fun anymore?" Puzzling, indeed. 

The truth was, she hadn't had such a good laugh or conversation than last night. Sirius and James were quite the pair, Remus was really very deep, and Peter wasn't so bad. The rest of the Marauders were actually very nice to Peter, and included him in everything they said. Lily was surprised, because that was contrary to popular belief. However, Lily still could sense some sort of melancholy feeling from Peter, despite all of his laughing and joking. And no matter what, he always seemed nervous. 

Lily giggled as she recalled a topic from last night. She had been giggling randomly all morning, without explanation, and she hadn't noticed her friends were really confused. Lily practically skipped into the Great Hall and plopped down right next to Peter and James. 

"Morning, old chaps! Feeling ready for a new day? I sure am!" she responded without letting them answer. Not that they would've anyways. Remus was reading the _Wizard's Daily _newspaper, Sirius was completely absorbed and set on eating his food faster than he could fly a broomstick, Peter was reading his letter, and James...actually was listening to her. She gave him a pleasant smile and reached for a biscuit. 

She looked up though when she heard distant flapping. A few observant people bobbed their heads up to see a black feathered owl with a few white feathers here and there flying into the Great Hall with a plain beige envelope clutched in it's claws. A few more people looked up when their friends nudged them, and soon, more than a few were watching it's flight into the hall.

"Gee, I hope it's not mine!" Alice frantically whispered and clutched onto her boyfriend's sleeve. 

"Wow..." said Ehren Polopski. 

Many solemn murmurs could be heard throughout the hall, and finally the letter was dropped from above onto Lily's lap. The owl did not swoop down, or wait for a tip or a little nibble of food. It hardly even glanced at Lily. It simply gracefully flew in, went right above Lily, dropped the letter from high above, and left. It seemed most of the great hall had its eyes on Lily, and everyone around her at her table was deeply concerned. James nudged her lightly. "_Open _it." Lily shrugged her shoulders. She didn't understand why people were making such a big deal. Owls came in long after the flock of letter-delivering owls came in all the time. She picked up the letter and tore off the black wax seal. She pulled out a letter inside, just as plain beige as the envelope, and opened up the folds. It was written in neat, typewriter font. 

Dear Miss Lily Evans:

In the recent events of a Deatheater attack on a small muggle neighborhood in Little Whinging, Surrey, many muggle families and homes were destroyed. It has come to our attention that Mr. and Mrs. Richard Evans were among those harmed in this unexpected and violent act on April the first. We send our most deep condolences, and hope you will get over this tragic loss with time. 

Sincerely, 

The Ministry of Magic

Janice Walker, Head Auror 

Lily stared at the letter, her mouth slowly opening. It was slightly open now in disbelief, and her eyes were wider than saucers. She closed her mouth and clenched her teeth, and her eyebrows furrowed. She had a pained look on her face. Why had this letter come so late? It was nearly a week and a half after April 1st, and she was their daughter. The letter seemed so fake. Everything was typed, and there wasn't even a real signature at the bottom. Everything was plain, paper was beige parchment, and the ink was smudgy black typewriter ink. Lily shook her head and folded the letter up, placing it on the table and taking her fork to eat. Everyone was giving her odd looks. She lifted the fork to her mouth, a bit of egg on the end, and almost put it in. She stopped. 

Lily slowly placed the fork down on the table and looked down in her lap. _Mr. and Mrs. Evans were among those harmed in this unexpected and violent act on April the first. _The line flashed into her mind, and random sentences from that horrid letter zoomed through her head. They were gone. Something told Lily that that letter was just not fake. Gone. They were gone. Her mother...and father. Her birthday was this summer, how were they to celebrate it? How could they die? She was almost finished with school. How could they miss out on her graduation?

She stopped again. No, they wouldn't just miss out on her birthday and graduation. Lily suddenly realized that they were no longer there. "I've got to..." Lily said as she abruptly pushed her chair out and almost tripped in her hasty exit. She did not even get to say her excuse for leaving, and her voice cracked slightly. She left all her school things behind and simply walked briskly out, the heels of her shoes sounding much louder than they should've. The hall was simply silent, and Lily pushed open the doors and ran. Just..._ran. _

A/N: Hey, yes, major mood change of this chapter. I hadn't originally planned for her parents' deaths this early, but my grandmother recently died, so I thought it might be a appropriate if I wrote this now. I hope you liked it. 


	8. Three Month Membership, Gone!

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything. 

****

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily ran, the damp grass beneath her, and the scenery rushing past in a blur. It was a windy night, and it had rained the day before, so all traces of any sort of cloud were gone, and only the infinite dark sky nearly engulfed her. It seemed almost a billion stars were twinkling solemnly down on her as she continued to run. Lily didn't even know where she was running. She didn't even know why. The only thing she could think was to get out of the great hall, away from everyone. She didn't want to seem weak. 

Lily ran, not really feeling the aching in her legs, but only hearing the roaring sound of the air rushing past her and the feeling of the cool wind pressing around her body from all sides. It was going wildly through her loose red hair and gave her that chill in her stomach. She slowly came to a halt near the lake by a large tree, her legs collapsing . Lily leaned against the trunk and looked up at the sky, feeling more exhausted than she had realized. 

Lily realized that she was crying. Her eyes were simply flooding, and she could now feel that her face was sticky with tears. She hadn't noticed before, and didn't until she had stopped running. It felt like a dream. This whole thing, a really unpleasant dream. Waking up happy, the letter, walking out of the hall...Lily felt like she was watching all of it from afar. 

She sighed heavily, and shook her head. She couldn't believe she had even been worried that her parents were not going to be there for her graduation, or birthday. She had been so worried about that, until she realized they wouldn't be there for anything, ever again. What did she do now? She had no where to go, because she was, of this summer, an official adult wizard. Lily heard panting and heavy footfalls behind her.

He put his hand on the tree and leaned against it, catching his breath. "God, you run fast." 

Lily did not respond but stared determinedly at the glassy lake. If James Potter ever saw her cry...she might just kill herself. Lily tried to inconspicuously wipe away the remnants of her tears, as she gained back her pompous, irritated facade. 

"What do you want, Potter?" 

"I just wanted to see if you were alright," he said. His voice was surprisingly soft. 

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Because you seemed kind of upset...I mean I would be too. I read that letter..."

"I'm not...I'm not upset. And why were you reading my personal mail? You shouldn't butt in, you know."

"Well, I was _concerned_. I didn't have to read it anyways. Everyone knows what sort of letter that was. Everyone's worried Lils."

"_Don't _call me Lils," she said through gritted teeth. "And why does everyone have to be worried? What do you mean 'That sort of letter?' The sort of letter that tells you a week afterwards that your very own parents...that they..." Lily could not bring herself to say it. James tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but Lily jumped up at it and gave him an accusing glare.

"Don't touch me!" Lily shrieked. James looked taken aback. He hadn't expected that sort of reaction. 

"It's okay Lily. I mean, everyone understands..."

"It's okay that they've left me?! Is that what you're saying?" she asked, incredulous. 

"No...that's not at all what I'm saying. Everyone knows how you're feeling...we all dread that happening to us! I mean, for a second I thought the owl would go to me. My parents are big against You-Know-Who," he said.

"Oh, so you're _glad _that the letter went to me, I'm sure! Well, Potter, now that I _know _you don't care about me, but rather, more about your own well-being, I'll just be off on my merry way," Lily said. Everything James said seemed mean to Lily. 

"Hey, wait! I'm just trying to make you feel better," he said. 

"Oh, right, make me feel better. You've only made my life a living hell from year one, why not make it a little better now?" Lily sarcastic tone and attitude was making James aggravated.

"You don't have to take all your anger out on me! And what have I done to make your life a living hell? You've only made my life worse by joining the Marauders! You don't know what the hell you're doing!" Lily looked like she might cry. James had forgotten that he had come out there to make her feel better, because she had made him briefly mad. 

"Well, fine then! If I'm that much trouble, you can just do without me! That's just fine. Lily Evans won't have to put up with your stupid rules and your stupid flying lessons and your stupid _face _anymore! Consider me out!" She stormed off, crying again. All the Marauders had probably thought she was a fumbling idiot, and she was a nuisance for 92 days. Lily felt like a lost child. 

James slumped down and sat by the tree. Lily Evans was more trouble than she was worth. He shook his head and put it in his hands. He had gotten rid of her a month and a half early, the Marauders should be relieved to know that they wouldn't have to drag her along on all of their pranks. They could easily go back to pranking everyday, instead of avoiding a prank at all costs. But somehow, James did not feel relieved of the load. He felt like he was carrying more. 

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry that was so short, but I couldn't possibly add anymore without making it all out of place and out of order, and weird. But I'll probably update sooner since this chapter was so short. I hoped you liked it! Review!!!! =D


	9. It's All Your Fault

Disclaimer: Not Mine. Don't Fine!

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily had done it, she had left the Marauders. It wasn't as if she was emotionally attached to it or anything. It was just...Lily had really, really wanted to try being wild. She hadn't been anywhere close to it. She had had one taste of it, and she had been hungry for more. Now, however? Now, Lily wished she could've just seen her parents one last time. Maybe have said goodbye, or hugged them. Be the sweet little girl they had raised. Why had she wanted to change herself? 

All week, people had come up to her and coddled her, asked her if she was okay. If Lily heard the words, "Are you okay?" one more time, she thought she might just strangle that person. Lily was so exhausted. The workload had been getting heavier and heavier, and exams were drawing near. She had prefect duties, people had been pestering her, thinking it would make her feel better if they were constantly by her side, and her parents' funeral was in two days. Lily would have to miss a few days of school for that. She was leaving tomorrow morning.

___________________________________

Lily looked around. People she had known all her life, and people she had never seen even once were all there, in that vast green field, where other gray headstones were. The coffins were there, side by side with bouquets of white roses on top of their dark wood. Some people were crying, while others were reminiscing. It was dark and gloomy outside, and she could already feel drops of rain here and there. 

Lily walked up to the coffins and looked at them. She was glad they were closed. She didn't think she could handle looking at them while they were like that. She put her hand on her mother's coffin.

"Hello, Mum," she said, hardly audible. Her throat was dry. 

"I don't know if you know this..." she stopped though, as she felt a shadow over her. Lily turned around and found Petunia there, eyes brimming with tears, as well as hate, and folded arms. Her black dress was blowing around her, and with her arms folded like that, Petunia looked cold. Silence passed between them.

"You know, this is your fault," said Petunia. Lily opened her mouth slightly, in shock. How was any of this her fault?

"You know, if you weren't....if you weren't _unnatural_, then none of this would've happened. Mum and Dad...they were murdered by your kind, I know it," she said. Petunia's voice cut like knives, and Lily could feel her eyes watering. She had tried not to cry the entire funeral, but Petunia had always managed to make her cry. 

"It's not...it's not my fault," Lily croaked. 

Petunia made a noise of disbelief. "_Right. _You're always wonder child, aren't you? Little Lily could never do _anything _wrong. Mum and Dad had you all wrong. Now they're gone. Thanks a lot, Lily. I don't want to talk to you ever again. Good bye." Petunia walked off, to her boyfriend. They interlaced their hands, and Lily could just hear from Vernon Dursley, as they walked off, "Did you cut it off with her?"

Lily could feel tears streaming down her face as she watched her sister and her boyfriend walk off to talk to other people Petunia had probably never met in her life either. Lily turned back to the coffin, and put her hand on it again. The wind blew all around her, calming her nerves. She breathed in the damp air and exhaled. She felt a few more drops of rain splash into her. 

"I said...I don't know if you know this...but I love you."

__________________________________

Petunia's words weighed heavily on Lily's mind. Was she really the cause of their death? If Lily had not been a Witch, then maybe they would've survived. She didn't know. Ever since their death, Lily had not gotten a full night's rest. She hadn't properly groomed herself, or really cared. Her eyes looked more dead than usual. 

James was afraid to talk to Lily. He avoided sitting next to her or communicating with her at all costs. Lily didn't notice, as she was often found daydreaming in class, hardly paying attention at all. James usually sat as far away from her as possible, but ended up staring at her all through class. He couldn't get his mind off of her. She seemed so...solemn. He had never seen her that way. Sure, Lily was serious before, but not in the same way. Lily now had a sad aura about her that showed in her eyes. He didn't know if he should talk to her. He was afraid if he did, she might just burst out into tears or something. How was he supposed to handle something like that?

While all of this was happening, James also had to think about the 7th years' feast. All 7th years had a large, private feast with the Headmaster, and got their last words of wisdom from their Professors. It was sort of like a ball, graduation, and goodbye dinner rolled into one. Only 7th years were invited, but they could invite a younger year as a date. James, no doubt, was getting many offers from some of his older girl mates. 

So far, he had said no to all of them.

One day, James was sitting in the Great Hall, a few seats down, diagonally from Lily. She was sitting their idly while Amos Diggory talked to her. He didn't seem to realize she wasn't paying one bit of attention. Her friends, Sarah and Diana seemed to be encouraging his conversation with her, and really trying to get Lily to participate.

"Ahem...excuse me...James?" It was Victoria Schmidt, pretty 7th year Gryffindor with long flowing brown hair and clear blue eyes. She was rich and sophisticated, and her face was layered with makeup. She toyed with the pearl necklace she was wearing while attempting to talk to him. 

"Huh? Oh, Hello Vicky..." he said, dazed.

"I was just wondering...would you want to go to the 7th years' ball with me this Saturday night? I mean, it'll be really nice, and I haven't got a date yet. So, what do you say?" she asked. 

James was not really paying attention. Half of his mind was on Vicky, and half of his mind was paying attention to what Amos was saying to Lily. He could just hear him, because they were close enough. James was on the verge of saying no to Vicky, but stopped when he heard Diggory asking, smoothly, "So, Lily, would you like to go to the 7th years' feast with me?" 

Lily shrugged, but Sarah nodded enthusiastically. "Of COURSE Lily wants to go! She'll meet you in front of the Great Hall doors at...6:30!" 

Diana grinned and nodded too, then nudged Lily lightly. "_Right, _Lily?"

Lily didn't look very interested but nodded anyways. "Alright, I suppose."

"Er...James, hello? Are you there?" asked Victoria. 

"Huh? Oh yeah...sure I'll go with you. Meet you in front of the Great Hall doors at...say 6:30?"

"Perfect! See you there," she said, winking at him before waking off to her group of friends. 

James smiled slightly and shrugged. 

A/N: ooh...what'll happen now?! please read and review. =D


	10. Two Dates in One Night

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling= Owner of Harry Potter Million Dollar Empire... Writer of this story= owns little to nothing. 

****

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily sighed tiredly as Diana shook her once more. "Get. UP!" she said, for the third time. Every time they repeated it, their voices got louder. Lily wanted nothing more than to stay in bed all day until she felt better. Which would probably be around... _next year_. She had not been feeling well lately, mentally and physically. She was tired all the time, and overworked. She sneezed; Lily was probably catching a cold too. 

"GET UP!" Sarah screamed in a high-pitched voice. She then quickly began giggling. "Wow, that was loud."

"And head-ache inducing," murmured Lily. "Guys, why are we getting up so early? The actual feast isn't until tonight...and I don't have to be out until 6:30. And if I want to be fashionably late, That means I won't even have to be there until 6:45."

Diana rolled her eyes. " '_Why are we up so early?_' Lily, it's past 12! That's hardly what I call early. And, we are up so "early," because one, you haven't gotten your dress robes yet, and two, in order to actually get AT the great hall at 6:30 and be well dressed and groomed, you'd have to be up at like, 4. And in order to be up at four and getting ready, you'd have dress robes. Which brings us back to point one: you don't have any. And Hogsmeade is today, _which is perfect_, and it's scheduled to leave at 1:30." She took a long breath at the end of her long speech and nodded in satisfaction. There was a long silence as Lily lay in bed, considering her options. 

"SO GET UP!" screamed Sarah, again, in a very high-pitched voice. She giggled hysterically. 

_________________________________________

"Come on!" Sarah said, as she dragged Lily by the hand to the grand front doors. They stood in the considerably short line (many of the girls had already gotten their dresses weeks ago) and waited to get their names checked off the list by Filch. He scrutinized them for a second, as if trying to see if they were really axe murderers in disguise as students, and then grunted "Off you go, then."

Diana and Sarah had Lily sandwiched in the middle. Diana was checking her purse and counting to see how much money she had, while Sarah was talking about how cute Alice and Frank were as a couple. Lily was listening, but not with much interest. She had only heard this conversation from others about a million times- Alice and Frank had been together for nearly seven months. 

"And _then _Alice said that James Potter was cute! You can imagine the kind of reaction Frank had to that!" Sarah said excitably. She was always on top of gossip. She was friends with Aline, who happened to talk a lot...

Lily raised her eyebrows, and lifted her head. "So, Alice says she likes James Potter? I thought she loved Frank!"

"Oh, yes, she does love Frank. She was only saying that James was _cute_. But you know, a lot of girls like James, so it's really nothing new," said Sarah.

"A..._lot_... of girls like James?" Lily asked. She hadn't really known. She knew he was quite popular, but she had always thought Sirius was the lady's man of the group. She had pictured James as the "Gang Leader."

Diana literally laughed lout loud and shook her head. "Boy Lily, are you that blind? Loads of girls like him! I mean, a lot more like Sirius, but a good bit of the population of Hogwarts girls like him. He's not really...well, good looking I suppose. But he's really funny and witty. A lot of people are attracted to him. I can't believe you didn't know," she said, shaking her head ashamedly. 

"Well, sorry I don't keep up with Potter's life! Besides, not _that _many girls could possibly like him. He's a really big git if you ask me."

Diana and Sarah simply did not comment. Lily was getting irritated and they didn't know why. 

They arrived at Hogsmeade finally, and Diana pulled a piece of parchment and a pen out of her bag. "Hm, let's see. Well, there's about 15 stores in all that sell dress robes. Of course, this goes without saying, we're going to all of them--"

"WHAT?! All of them? Why? Can't I just grab a robe and go? Seriously, I'm not that concerned."

"We'll go into Trista's Closet first, as they've got the most selection. Then Segal's Sorceress wear..." Diana continued, completely ignoring Lily's protests. 

"Yeah, I think Yearling's Threads should be next. They've got great accessories too!" Sarah discussed. 

"That's a really far out idea..." said Diana. They began walking, still deciding which place should be next, however, Sarah and Diana made sure that Lily was sandwiched in the middle and could not escape. 

They entered "Trista's Closet," and dragged Lily in. Immediately, they all began searching through the nearly dozens of racks filled with fancy dress robes. Soon, robes were being thrown at Lily, and she was ordered forcefully into the dressing room. Lily walked out, listlessly, with plain deep red dress robes and a plunging neckline. 

"Well, what do you think?" Lily asked. Diana and Sarah were sitting in chairs right in front of her dressing stall, and were examining every inch of it. 

"I don't like it." Sarah declared. Diana shook her head. "Neither do I. Try on the next one!" Diana ordered, pointing to the next robe on the table beside to her, which was piled with various robes. Lily groaned and snatched it up. She walked out in deep green robes, which were pretty clingy. The neckline was droopy, and there was decorative lacey material on the hem of the robes at the cuffs. 

"You know, I actually like that one," declared Diana. "But we've still got about 20 more to go. Plenty of time to decide!" 

Lily's eyes widened at the thought, but her friends didn't seem to notice, as they began conversing as if nothing were wrong. "Er...guys, I'm going to go to the bathroom quickly."

Sarah just nodded. "Right, just be back quickly. We've got a lot to try on!" 

"Right-o," she said, and discreetly grabbed her normal clothes. She dashed to the register with the dress robes still on and said under her breath, "Look, I'd like to buy these robes right now. SH! Don't say anything! My friends...they might her you ringing up my item! Okay, how much? Twenty Galleons? Lord, that's expensive...whatever!" she said, as she hurriedly put twenty galleons down on the table, slipped the dress robes off (not really caring if the lady that worked there saw her undergarments), shoved it in the bag, and put on her normal clothes while she tried to leave the store. As she opened the door, it made that ringing sound that alerted the employees when people entered and left. Diana and Sarah quickly turned around and saw Lily just turned the corner and started a mad dash to who-knows-where. 

"Ugh! Oh no! She's getting away!" 

"RUN!" Sarah screamed, and then laughed to herself, as they jumped up and ran after her. When they reached outside, however, Lily could not be seen- the streets were densely crowded, and Lily must've been halfway to China by that time. 

_____________________________________

Lily was not even looking where she was going. She was bumping into people every which way, and only knew she was headed for the Three Broomsticks. All she wanted was a hot mug of Butterbeer and to rest. She was feeling awfully tired. The entrance to the Three Broomsticks was traffic jammed. Lily skidded to a halt before she realized this, and bumped into the person in front of her. 

"WHOA! Watch out!" Lily said, as she fell into the person in front of her.

"Hey, ow! What do you think you're doing?" said James, as he turned around angrily. His face softened though. "Oh. It's you."

"Yes, It's _me_. What are _you _doing here?" 

"Well, I'm here to get something to drink. You know, _eat_...those normal human bodily functions?"

"_Right. _You don't have to get sarcastic with me." She rolled her eyes. 

"Do you want me to buy you a drink?" asked James.

"No. I can buy my own drink, thanks." Somehow, since she now knew James was liked by many girls, he should be hated or accused for something. What was his problem? Why did all these girls like him? Definitely punishable by law. Or _should_ be...

They walked into the pub and went to the counter together. "One Butterbeer." said Lily, to Madam Rosemerta. She poured her a foaming mug of Butterbeer and set it on the counter. "That'll be 5 knuts, m'dear." Rosemerta said. 

Lily reached down to pat her purse where it usually say on her shoulder, underneath her arm, but found it was not there. "Er...oh no...I left my purse at Trista's Closet..." She mentally banged her head against the wall. 

James grinned cockily and shrugged. "Well, you don't need _me_ to buy you a drink." he said, as he ordered his own. Madam Rosemerta put his drink on the counter and Lily sighed. James, however, placed a total of ten knuts on the counter and smiled. "You didn't actually believe I was going to let you dehydrate yourself and then die? Never! But, now that I've bought you a drink, you've got to sit with me."

Lily shrugged and walked over with him to a small, two seat table by a dusty old window. Lily's eyes drooped. After running and using all her energy, especially while she was already tired, as well as sick, Lily felt exhausted. 

"Oi, you alright? You look a bit ill," James said.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm alright. Just a little...worn out." She put her head down on the table, resting her head for a moment. "Go ahead, talk. I'm still listening," she said. 

"Er...okay. You know..." James laughed to himself, and looked at the window. "This is sort of like a date...I bought you a drink, and we're here together, alone. That's really _weird." _James looked to her and saw that her eyes were closed and she was sleeping soundly, even though there was so much noise and conversation around her. 

______________________________________

James had gently shaken her awake and dragged her to the castle. He had to get back to school to get ready for his date with Victoria, and he was not just going to leave Lily there, sleeping in a pub, alone. He was sure by the time she was there for five minutes, she would get raped by some crazy troll. Their walk to the castle and common room was pretty quiet, but neither of them noticed. They didn't really mind it, and besides- Lily did not feel like talking. They parted ways at the staircases, and went to get ready.

Once again, Lily walked into the dorm to find quite angry friends. "Why did you leave us?!"

"Because, I didn't want to spend my entire afternoon trying on a ton of dress robes that all look alike anyways!" retorted Lily. She was not up for a row on why she had not stayed. She was not up for any kind of row, for that matter, and her friends were really irritating her now. Why was this so important to them? It hardly meant anything to Lily. 

Diana sighed exasperatedly. "Nevermind. We just wanted tonight to be really special...it might've made you feel better. Obviously it only made you mad."

"You can do what you want now. You haven't even got dress robes to wear..." said Sarah, just as tired. 

"Er, well, actually I do. I thought you really wanted me to go, so I just grabbed the last robe I tried on and bought it...it's those green ones with lace on them." Lily felt sort of bad now. Her friends only wanted her to feel better. But then, she was still annoyed they had gone about it in such an obnoxious way. 

Sarah squealed in delight. "YOU DID? Yay! Wow, I was really looking forward to getting you ready! And now I can!" She ran into the bathroom and began rifling through all their beauty supplies. Diana grinned proudly, and opened the closet to find a pair of shoes.

"So, What DID you do when you ran away from us?" asked Diana. 

"Er...well, Potter bought me a butterbeer, and I sat with him in The Three Broomsticks for a while.."

"You ditched us for a date with James?! You know, you could've told me you liked him," said Diana. 

"It...It was not a date!" Lily sputtered. "He only bought me a drink because I forgot my purse in Trista's Closet! AND I fell asleep there sitting with him!" 

Diana giggled. "Okay...Whatever you say, Lily. Anyways, why'd you fall asleep?"

"Well, I was feeling a bit tired, is all."

"Oh...well, are you okay?"

"YES! I AM FINE! If another person asks me that..."

"HAIR TIME!" Sarah said, skipping in with her wand and curlers. 

"Urgh..." 

_______________________________________

James looked over the heads of people hanging around in the area before the great hall, trying to find their dates. Victoria was already hooked onto James arms, wearing bubblegum pink robes and large, beige pearls. Here long brown hair was tied in a very high ponytail, and tied with a matching ribbon. Her make-up matched her robes...James had grimaced when he saw that much pink on one person. He forced a "You look gorgeous." out with ease. He was very practiced at lying, to say the least. 

James was looking for Lily, and did not even realize it. "James... why are we waiting in here? Why don't we go into the Great Hall?"

"Oh...right, okay." he said, giving up, at last. 

They walked into the Great Hall, and found it looked just as it always did, except with a large, elaborate banner hanging above the teacher's table that said "Good Bye Hogwart's 7th Years!" Many of the 7th years were already talking to all their friends, and crying hysterically, blubbering, as if they'd never see each other again. 

"Oh, Marcie! I'll miss you...s-so...s-so..._so_ much!" Cathy Patil cried out, and they hugged each other.

Victoria walked over to many people, and conversed with them, practically ignoring James. James stood by her and looked bored, until finally, Dumbledore stood up, and all the students sat down, at the now one large table, instead of four house tables. 

"Well. This year is almost gone. And you will not be coming back next year to fill your brains up once more. I must ask you to keep those brains in your heads this year, instead of letting them rot as is usual." There was some laughing among the students, as Dumbledore brought up his favorite beginning of the year joke about their brains rotting during the summer. "Whatever you choose to be, I hope it makes you happy. Just be sure to choose sides well in thought of these dark times, and remember your years at Hogwarts. Now is the time to say a proper good bye with any of your classmates. I wish you well on, not only your exams at Hogwarts, but the exam life will set for you." With this, he sat down, and the students clapped. Many of them looked very sad, but James did not see the point. It was not as if they would ever see the other again--They still had a good sixty or seventy years to live, didn't they?

People ate, and mostly, they laughed and walked around, and talked to each other. There was music playing, but no one seemed to be dancing, except a few couples here and there. Once again, Victoria had ignored him, and was no where to be seen. 

"NO, Amos, I don't feel like dancing. I'm really tired. And this is really boring," said Lily. James looked over quickly and saw the red head with long curls in her hair, and elegant green robes on. She truly did look tired though, as she wobbled slightly when Amos forced her to slow dance with him. 

"Come on Lily, Victoria was never this tired all the time...this is supposed to be memorable, and all you want to do is sleep!"

"Well, you're not going out with Victoria anymore! And _I'm_ not even going out with you! And if I'm making it so hard for you, why don't you just go dance with Victoria instead?!" Lily snapped.

"Fine, maybe I will! You can go sleep in that corner there if you want!" Amos snapped back.

"Er, is something the matter?" James tentatively asked.

"No, of course nothing's wrong. Why would you ask a silly question like that?" Lily said, sarcastically.

"Yes, something _is_ wrong. Lily, you are so..._boring_!" said Amos.

"Hey, that's not nice...come on Lily, why are you hanging out with this creep?" said James, as he took her hand and dragged her over to the table to sit. They sat down, and Lily put her head in her hands.

"God, I'm tired...and sort of dizzy."

"Oi, lift your head up," he said, as he felt her forehead with his hand. "Damn, your burning up! You should be in bed..." he got up, and helped her up.

They walked out into the halls, and headed toward the common room, but Lily could not stay up the entire way, She put her arm around his shoulder for support, and they continued to walk. 

Lily stopped, and was breathing slowly and heavily. "Wait up, James..." said Lily, and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall. Her head teetered from side to side, and her eyes fluttered closed. She had fainted. James eyes widened and he quietly panicked. Bring her to the Hospital Wing, or to the Gryffindor Room? The Common Room was closer, so he scooped her up with both his arms, and stood up. She was a lot lighter than he had expected...

He said the password, and walked in. She he began heading for the Girls' Dormitories, he stopped short, and realized that he could not go up. He could already picture himself sliding down the stairs with Lily tumbling down after him. He shook his head, and thought of other options. She could sleep on the couch...but she was sick, and needed a proper bed! He rolled his eyes and sighed. Lily Evans could sleep in his bed, and he could sleep on the couch. He walked up to his dorm, and placed her down gently in his bed. Sirius, Peter, and Remus were no where to be found at that moment, so he decided he would shut the curtains, and put up a messily scrawled sign on the curtains reading, "Leave Me ALONE!"

He looked at her for a moment before leaving, and she shifted slightly in her sleep. "Are...you okay?" he murmured. 

"Mm hm..." said Lily, nodding her head, and smiling slightly. Surprisingly, she had answered. James lips curved slightly, and he closed the curtains, and went downstairs to sleep on the couch. 

A/N: Woo hoo. A little more fluffy than usual, but hey, I'm human too! Anyways, I made it extra long for you readers, and I hope you liked it. Make sure you review, or else! It'll make me super happy!! 


	11. Chocolate Cake

Disclaimer: Not mine, as usual. 

A/N: Wow, this is new...an author's note at the beginning of the story! =D Well, I was just SO excited when I discovered a wave of reviews...twelve in all! That's more than I've ever received! It might have been more, actually, but I don't remember. Just for that, you guys get a super duper long chapter! 

Lily felt the warm sun shine on her face through a crack in the curtains. It felt warm, and it was very bright. She turned over; despite the fact that she usually liked the sun, Lily liked the dark better right now. She felt much better than before, though still slightly sick. However, her sickness must have been making everything about her seem better. He comforter was much softer than it usually felt, and the pillow she was clutching to her was feather soft and fuzzy too. She took a deep breath. Hm, her pillow smelled like dewy grass and the morning. She didn't recall her bed feeling quite so nice. 

Peter, Sirius, and Remus were all standing outside the bed, grinning like idiots. 

"Who do you reckon he brought to the dorm last night?" Peter asked. 

"Hm...I don't really know. I didn't realize he was going out with anyone in the first place!" said Sirius. He seemed kind of sulky. 

"Well...I mean, do you think he even brought someone in last night? He could've just been tired and didn't want one of his friends jumping on him at 6 in the morning to get up for breakfast." At this, Remus shot Sirius a glare.

Sirius didn't seem to notice though, and simply replied as normal. "Nah, he wouldn't do that for no reason. I mean, we _made_ that sign to show that one of us had brought in a _girl_! What _else _would he use it for?"

"Do you reckon we should just pull open the curtains and see who it is? It would be a bit of fun to embarrass him, and get back at him for not telling us who he liked," said Peter.

"Mm," Lily sighed, as she turned over, snuggling more into the unbelievably soft blanket she was wrapped up in. Sirius raised an eyebrow. 

"Well, that certainly kills the 'maybe he was tired' theory."

Lily's eyes snapped open at the sound of a boy's voice. In her dorm. She shot up in bed and looked around nervously. What was she supposed to do? She grabbed the comforter with her hands in anxiety. 

__

Wait a minute...This isn't my blanket! Or my bed! Or my pillow! Where am I?!

Lily promptly ripped open the curtains, hoping it wasn't what she thought it was. Had Amos taken advantage of her? She couldn't recall much-- her mind was sort of hazy since she had just woken up. At seeing Sirius, Remus, and Peter standing before her, looking avidly at the bed, she let out a glass shattering scream. 

She leaped out of bed and began to pace around before the boys and speak loudly to herself.

"I didn't do it did I? What _have_ I done?"

"You mean you've _done_ something? Ooh, James, that little rascal!" said Sirius. 

"_James? _I've done something with James?!" 

"Hm, you mean you don't remember? Were you drunk?" asked Remus.

"I WAS DRUNK?! You mean, Amos got me drunk?!"

"You've done something with _Diggory_, too?" asked Peter.

"I DID something with Diggory?!"

"And James," Sirius added, thoughtfully. 

"AMOS AND JAMES?!" she shrieked.

James walked into the room and raised his eyebrows. He had a tray in his hands with chicken soup with crackers and a glass of water. "Er, what is going on?"

"James, where have you been? We've been wondering where you were..." said Peter. 

"I went to the kitchens to nick Evans some food," said James. 

"Food for WHAT?! Just because I'm _pregnant _doesn't mean you have to feed me _that much more_! I mean, it hasn't even been a DAY!" She said. She seemed irrational, and looked, quite frankly, like a mad woman. Her hair was tangled and frizzy, and her eyes were ablaze. She looked unusually pale, and her lips were very chapped. 

James almost dropped the tray, and his eyes had gotten to the size of a quaffle. "You're-- YOU'RE PREGNANT?!" 

"Gee, mate, that wasn't very nice of you to not use protection last night..." said Sirius. 

"Yes, it was pretty low to shag her while she was _drunk, _in the first place...but to not even provide the protection? You could have STD's, James!" said Remus. 

"James, you have STD's?! That means I'm contaminated now too!" said Lily. 

"You mean...it's my child? I'm...a father? _Wait_...just a second! I didn't _shag _Evans!" he rolled his eyes. "God, you think I'm that much of a pervert? Thanks, Lily, you make me feel loved. You're only up here because you fainted in the hall last night, so I had to carry you back. I obviously couldn't go up the girl's stair case, and you were sick, so I gave you my bed instead and slept on the couch!" 

Lily looked at her feet, trying to remember all the events, and laughed nervously when she had finally settled down and remembered everything quite clearly, up to her fainting spell. "So I did? Well...that was nice of you Potter..." she swung her hands from side to side. Peter look like he might just fall over laughing, if he held in his giggles any longer. 

"I suppose I'll be going now--"

"Oh, no you don't!" James said, pushing her down on the bed, and throwing the blanket over her legs. "Sit down! _You _are _sick. _I brought you soup, so you better eat this damn food I brought you," he said, setting the tray down on her lap, and folding his arms. "Just eat it, and then go to your own dorm. I'd like a rest in my bed as well, you know." There was an awkward pause before he left the room swiftly and went into the bathroom. 

By Monday, Lily was feeling much better, though she didn't have any extra time to rest. The teachers had not ceased in the workload, and Lily had a lot to catch up on. Before, she had not been up to it, feeling sick, and mostly sad. But somehow, she felt revived, and not nearly as melancholy as she had before. That night, Lily sat in the common room, and scribbled down a sentence she had spent minutes trying to compose. She immediately scratched it out after writing down the first few words. 

"Ugh, no, that's all wrong!" she said, in the common room at one in the morning. Lily had gotten into the habit of talking to herself. She had noticed this, and it only made her more depressed. Her friends did try to become closer to her try to comfort her, but Lily felt as if every time they asked her how she was, or how she was feeling, they were smothering her. They had already tried to help her, and what a disaster that had been. So, Lily had resorted to isolating herself, drowning her thoughts in homework best she could, and simply thinking. Yes...Lily had been doing an awful lot of thinking lately. 

James walked down from the stairway to his dorm and saw Lily sitting there, as usual, contemplating and staring idly into the crackling fire. He stared sadly...he had never seen her as sad as this. She had been keeping herself away, not really talking much, and only thinking and doing homework. He had been watching her, though he was embarrassed to admit. He was concerned, after all. 

James had come down for his daily midnight snack, but was temporarily distracted from it as he walked over to Evans, without thinking it. Before he could stop himself, and turn around, Lily had turned around, startled to find someone up at this hour. They looked at each other before James cleared his throat, attempting to break the silence he so hated. He was never one for quiet.

"So, Evans...everything alright?"

"Fine, I suppose." was all she said. Everything didn't _seem_ fine to James. Lily wasn't really trying to converse much, so another short silence befell them. 

"Er...so. Still trying to be a rule-breaker?" he asked, winking at her slyly. He was grinning slightly, and thought this might cheer her up a bit. Just the _notion _of trying to make yourself into a rule-breaker. It sounded absurd when you said it out loud. Like he predicted, Lily did crack a small, hardly there, but there all the same, smile. 

"Nah. I don't think so. Though I did think it would have been rather fun to do so for a bit longer...too bad," said Lily. She sounded strangely wistful. 

James got up, and paused, slightly hesitant. "Well...I've...got to go. You know. Stuff..." He began to walk off, but still seemed reluctant. He finally stopped, and turned around, looking at her earnestly. "Would you like to tag along? It'll be fun." James was possibly the _only_ person on earth who could be both earnest and mischievous looking at the same time. 

"Well, I don't know...I've got loads of--"

"Homework can wait! Come on Lily, let's go!" he pleaded. She still shrugged, almost defeated. James grinned, as he knew he had her, and grabbed her arm. 

"It'll be good for you to get out."

It was just the kitchens, but still. It was rule-breaking, and James knew Lily had never gone there before. She was a grade-A perfect model student. He dragged her along, and tickled the pear. He pulled open the door and stepped inside the kitchen, almost immediately bombarded with house-elves. 

"Hello Sir and Miss! What can Ginger the House Elf get for Sir and Miss?" a small house elf, dressed in a neat little apron and skirt, asked. 

"Well, a cup of tea--" Lily began, but was cut off by James. 

"Do you guys happen to have a really, really, REALLY big chocolate cake?" He gave a lopsided, charming smile, and one house elf nodded. About two seconds later, five house-elves were zooming to James and Lily, holding up a platter, holding up a larger, five layer, cylindrical cake. It looked absolutely sugar-filled. It looked horrible. But despite it, Lily found herself smiling stupidly. 

"You don't think I'm going to _eat_ that do you?" she asked. 

"No one said it was for _you_!" James replied. 

"Well, fine then. It's not like I _want_ any, anyways." she said.

"Sir and Miss can eat outside the kitchen door. There is a table there for Sir and Miss!" said Ginger. 

James thanked the elves, and walked out, holding the cake precariously, and sitting down at the table, setting the cake down gently. He put a napkin in his lap, took one of the two spoons that were stuck into the cake, and began to eat the cake, exaggerating. 

"Mm, this is the best cake, ever! Delicious!" he said, jokingly. Lily rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile. God, he was so stupid. 

Lily snatched the spoon up from the cake, but James immediately freaked out. "NO! My CAKE! _You_ can't have any!" he said mock snobbishly. 

She ignored him, and tried to take a stab at the cake. He lightly slapped her hand away. She tried again. He lightly slapped her hand away, again. She tried again. Light slap. She tried again. Playful shove. She playfully shoved him back, and soon, James had taken a large chunk of cake into his hands, and threw it right into Lily's face. 

For a moment, James looked at her, victorious, while Lily let her mouth hang open in shock. She quickly grabbed her own amount of cake, and threw it right at James face, getting more in his hair than in his face. He was fast to retaliate though, and soon, they were simply throwing delicious chocolate cake at each other. She fell off her chair, and James got up, laughing, taking a large amount of cake with him, and running away. 

"Catch me if you can, Evans!" he yelled behind him, running full speed ahead. Lily would not go down that way though, as she grabbed her own portion of cake, and got up, running after him. "Be scared for your life, Potter!" she yelled back. 

They ran down the halls, occasionally, throwing pieces of chocolate at the other. Soon, James was pushing through the front doors, running outside into the cool night, spring air. "Hah, Evans, come on!"

She grinned like an idiot, and threw a piece of cake at him, which hit James right in the back. "Agh!" he yelled in surprise. She ran after him, as the wind rushed pass her, and the trees blurred pass. Lily didn't know how fast she was running, but it felt nice to be outside. It didn't feel as confining, and the wind felt nice. She was gaining on Potter...Yes, almost there! Lily jumped on him, tackling him, as he yelped in surprise. 

"Whoa, Evans!" he yelled, as she shoved the rest of the cake she was holding into his open mouth. 

"Ack!" he choked, as Lily laughed openly and freely. She hadn't laughed this much in ages, it felt, and it was pleasant to feel this free.

They lay there for a few minutes, heaving heavily. They had been running very fast for a while, and were still catching their breath. For a moment, Lily did not realize what sort of suggestive positions he was in. Her legs were entangled with Potter's, she was lying on top of him, hands on his shoulders, and they were both "breathing heavily." Lily progressed to blushing profusely, as her mind in the gutter quickly felt ashamed. She scooted off quickly, muttering "Sorry," and settled for laying beside him in the grass instead. 

James didn't mind this sort of silence. It wasn't really silence. It was more of...not needing to talk at the moment. They stayed like that for a while, before Lily sat up slightly. "I think we ought to go in now." She said.

James shrugged, and heaved himself up. He stood for a minute, then put his hand down to help her up. She accepted it, and he clasped her small, delicate hand in his own. She pulled up, and stood, dusting her robes off. They began to walk back to the castle, and Lily sighed. She didn't feel so bad anymore. She didn't feel so smothered. She didn't feel like she had before, and that was enough for her. 

"James?" she said.

"Hm?" he said, lazily.

"Thanks."

A/N: Look! Another author's note! Hahaha! =D Did you like the chapter? You best have. There's still more to go, so stay tuned. And review!


	12. It's Been a Long Day

Disclaimer: Diz shizzot right hurr ain't legally myne, yo.

****

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily got through exams and the rest of the 6th year alright. She had felt significantly better since that night she had gone out with James. Suddenly, after that night, Lily had remembered just why she had wanted to change in the first place. At first, it had merely been because Lily could not stand being called "prudish." That was any 16-year-old's nightmare, wasn't it? When she had really gotten a taste of the other side though, Lily really did like the change, to be truthful. She had momentarily forgotten how being happy felt, altogether, when her mum and dad had died. On that night with James, Lily remembered just _why_ she had enjoyed the cool night wind stinging her skin, the blur of scenery rushing past, and that lurch in her stomach.

And now, here she was, Lily Evans, standing there, bags in hand, waiting at King's Cross. Where exactly was Lily going? To be honest, she did _not_ want to go there. In fact, the very idea of staying at this person's house was absolutely bone chilling. Before, she had been worried that she would not have a place to stay since her parents were dead and she was now of age in the wizarding world. Lily had gotten so caught up, she hadn't realized that she _was not _of age in the _muggle_ world, and very much did have a place to stay for the summer (or, at least, was obligated/forced to stay until she was eighteen). So, Lily stood there, feeling somewhat like an idiot, waiting for someone she doubted would even come to pick her up. She sighed. It was an hour past, and there was no possible way her ride was coming now. She would just have to hail a taxi.

Lily got hold of one of those yellow taxis, and told him where to go. She almost told him elsewhere; that's how much she didn't want to stay for the summer. It took about a half an hour to get there, but eventually, they did, and Lily stepped out, nearly shaking, gave the driver the required amount, and stepped out dragging along her trunk to the front door of this ordinary little home with a neatly trimmed lawn and perfect flower beds in bloom.

Tentatively, Lily knocked on the door, and it opened curtly after several minutes.

"Hello, Petunia," Lily said. Her sister only glared and let her in.

That night at dinner had not been the most pleasant experience in the world. It had been a tense, silent sort of gathering, and Vernon Dursley, her sister's fiance, was sending her death looks all throughout the meal. Lily could not stand having this sort of relationship with her sister, but every time she tried to speak to her, Vernon obnoxiously cut her off with a low growl, which he seemed to think was rather menacing. Lily did not want to be rude and make this visit any more worse than it already was, so silenced at his heed. At this first dinner though, Lily had not been quite as cautious, as she had not been aware of what was considered satanic in this household. So, innocently enough, after the completely silent dinner (with the exception of Vernon's growls), Petunia got up, beginning to collect the plates.

"Oh--" Lily began, but was slightly delayed by another one of Dursley's growls. She ignored it this time, thinking maybe he was doing it on accident. "Don't bother with the dishes, Petunia. I mean, I'll clean them. It's the least I could do," she said. Petunia paused, and turned her head at Lily, with a very suspicious look on her features. _Does she think I'm going to throw the plates at her? _Lily thought.

Lily began to move forward to collect the dishes already in Petunia's hand, but her sister shrieked and leaped back. Vernon roared and jumped up from his chair, causing the ground to almost shake (he was not a very fit man). He was breathing very heavily already, his face beet red, but he seemed to try to be hiding the fact that he had just jumped up rather abruptly by trying to slow down his rapid breaths, and stand completely still. Out of the corner of his mouth, he whispered relatively loudly, as if Lily could not hear him perfectly fine, "Don't _move_ Petunia. If you keep stark still, this freak may not notice anything strange...if she tries anything...just run!" Lily raised her eyebrows, confused. What were they doing? Was this some sort of joke?

"Er..." Lily said, making both of them flinch. She decided to completely ignore all of this, and resumed to moving toward Petunia to take the dishes. Both Petunia and Vernon's eyes widened, and they looked too frightened to move at all. Lily took the dishes gently from Petunia's hands and smiled nervously. She moved to the sink, and her sister and her sister's fiance followed her cautiously with their eyes. Lily set the dishes down on the counter and moved her hand hesitantly toward to turn on the water. She stopped however, and turned around.

"You know, how about I just clean this up with magic? It would be much easier!" Lily said, forcing a jovial tune into her voice and reaching into her pockets without waiting for an answer. Perhaps if she cleaned the dishes with a simple _scourgify, _then she could maybe change their minds about magic, and most certainly liven up the dull chore of cleaning dishes. This, on Lily's part, was a very, _very _unwise decision, for she had not noticed the way Vernon's face had become a rather puce looking color, and how both of their eyes had become wider than saucers. The moment Lily had drawn out her wand, and pointed it at the dishes, Dursley had come to his senses, and bellowed swear words, beginning to throw objects at Lily.

"GET. AWAY!" He yelled, losing all patience. Petunia was sobbing on the ground, crying hysterically.

"Oh, make her stop, Vernon!" she cried. "Just make her put that foulness away, back in her pocket!"

"This foulness?" Lily asked, looking at her wand, while narrowly missed being hit by a small glass flower vase. "Is this what you're on about? I'll put it away!" she had to scream over Dursley's voice, he was yelling so loudly. She did indeed stow it back into her pocket, and still had her hands over her head, waiting for her sister's to-be husband to stop throwing inanimate objects at her. Vernon realized the wand was gone, and at the end of all this madness, he was breathing loudly through his flared nostrils, still looking as if all blood flow was cut off from his head completely. Petunia's small whimpers could now be heard in the uncomfortable silence that has befell the now battered and wrecked room. Lily's eyebrows were raised.

"I...uh...suppose I'll go unpack now," she said.

Fortunately, the rest of the dinners were not quite as eventful. However, Lily sometimes did not even attend dinner, just to avoid facing her sister and her rather intimidating fiance. During her whole stay, a minimum of words were spoken. Though Lily often considered trying to converse with Petunia, she never really went through with it. What if another first-dinner-scenario happened? She was still nursing a nasty cut from the knife Vernon threw. Or, what Lily was really worried about, what if she made things worse between her and her sister? So, things remained silent, and it had been a little more than a month she had stayed there already. Everything was silent...until that night.

Lily was sitting peacefully in her room. It was, of course, pretty quiet, and as she glanced at her beside clock, it read 6:00. The precise time Petunia and Vernon sat down to eat. _Well, let's see...I haven't been down to eat for three days in a row. I reckon it's okay for me to go down tonight, _Lily thought, checking off the days. So, she slipped on her socks and slippers, and ran a brush through her hair. Lily didn't think she would have to be groomed to eat with her own sister, but better to be safe than sorry, eh?

She descended down the stairs as the savory smells wafted towards her. It was clearly some sort of salty food. Lily went down cautiously and peered in. It was always better to make your appearances slowly and gradually, so they didn't think you were out to attack them. Lily learned that one on her third day staying. Vernon noticed her first, and grunted, then nudged Petunia. They did not say anything, but it was obvious they knew she was here. Lily took her place at the table and picked up her spoon, ready to start on her clam chowder.

Vernon cleared his throat quickly, and Lily pulled her head up, surprised. He did not say anything, however. Lily shrugged and began into her soup again. Another throat-clearing was heard.

"Er...yes?" Lily asked. Apparently, they were trying to get her to realize something without directly speaking to her. This method was definitely not working very well, since Lily still had no possible idea of what they wanted of her.

Lily raised her eyebrows, and shrugged again. If they were not going to tell her, she was going to eat. "Ahem," she heard, again.

"_What_? Just _say _it," Lily said, irritated. Vernon turned a sort of red color, and his mustaches bristled. He did not like people telling him what to do. Petunia simply looked terrified.

"Say it!" Lily urged. She did not want to be interrupted again.

"We..." Petunia began. Lily, for some reason, was very annoyed. They should just say it and get on with it. Lily was not evil, or contaminated, or contagious. They should just talk to her! They had been ignoring her and avoiding her for weeks, but this was really the cherry on top.

"Look, just say it, you bloody moron! This shouldn't take more than two seconds!" Lily said, not meaning to raise her voice.

Vernon slammed his fist against the table and a few veins throbbed in his temple. Lily recoiled slightly...his forehead looked absolutely disgusting.

"I won't have you talking to my wife like that!" He said.

"I can talk to her how I bloody well please! Either you tell me what you want to tell me, or you just stop clearing your bloody throat!" Lily retorted.

"I will NOT HAVE YOU SWEARING AT ME!" He said. Really, wasn't he over reacting?

"I WILL NOT HAVE YOU NEGLECTING ME!" Lily shouted as well. Petunia squealed in fright.

"I WON'T BE ASSOCIATING MYSELF WITH A BLOODY FREAK SUCH AS YOURSELF!" he said.

"WELL, if you would just TELL me WHAT you _want _to bloody well say to me, you WOULDN'T HAVE TO BE ASSOCIATING WITH ME AS MUCH AS YOU ARE NOW!" she said.

"I...I CAN TELL YOU WHAT I WANT TO!" he said, struggling for good comebacks.

"THEN, WHY DIDN'T YOU!?" she said.

"I...I...SHUT UP!" he said. Ooh, another good one.

"JUST. TELL. ME!" Lily said. She realized she was making a bigger deal out of this than she meant to, or more than it really deserved, but she couldn't help it. She was feeling particularly feisty that night, and slightly annoyed. That soup had looked delicious at first, but not while you were hearing disgusting guttural noises from the back of someone else's throat.

There was a dragging silence while Vernon breathed heavily, and thought hard about whether he should say or not. If he did say it, it would end all the nonsense. But it would also prove, in some way, that she had won. And really, Vernon Dursley, he was a proud man. Before he could decide, Petunia took matters into her own hands.

"We...f-f-forgot to say grace," Petunia muttered.

Was that all? "Oh." was all Lily could say. All that arguing for...grace. Lily sighed, and put out her hands for them to hold so they could all say grace. Vernon and Petunia had joined hands, but they were both looking speculatively at Lily's outstretched hands.

"Go on," Lily said. "I Want to eat sometime, you know."

"I'm not touching _you," _blurted out Petunia.

"Damned right! We've made a pact to not associate ourselves with freaks like you, and I intend to follow that," said Vernon smugly.

"Oh, just take it, you eejits. My deathly disease of Cornish pixies gonorrhea isn't contagious, you know." Lily said, rolling her eyes. They were being ridiculous.

"No." simply said.

"Just take it." Lily persisted.

"No."

"UGH! You two are impossible! It's not like I'm _making _you become wizards!"

Gasps. "Are you implying we are becoming wizards of our own free will?!" Vernon said.

"No...it was just an examp--"

"GET OUT! GET OUT...NOW!" Dursley yelled. Lily looked away. It was that revolting forehead, again.

"What?! No way!" Lily said.

"GET OUT!" He yelled again. He wasn't hearing much else except his own voice.

"This is absolutely unbelievable!" Lily said. "YOU ARE A JERK! A BLOODY NARROW-MINDED, ABNORMAL, UGLY, JERK! AND I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU, PETUNIA! WITH HIM!" Lily said, whipping out her wand as a habit, and out of anger. They both gasped and Petunia stumbled backwards, nearly fainting. Lily did not notice though, as she hadn't realized she had done something strange, or 'dangerous.' She had only taken out her wand to conjure her belongings. She had had enough of this hell hole.

"I am _out of here_." Lily said, her voice dropping a few intervals, and giving Petunia a very dirty look, before walking out of the house with her paraphernalia floating along behind her, without any support, though bumping into each other quite roughly, for Lily was not taking much care. She left Petunia and Vernon in a stunned silence. Petunia hadn't actually thought her sister was going to leave. Vernon was probably still shocked by the fact she had come to stay at all.

"Okay. Don't panic. Just, think straight!" Lily said, to herself. After dashing out the house and walking a few blocks down the very crooked sidewalk, in the dark night, she stopped from exhaustion. It was then, when she had gotten up to go again, Lily realized she had no where to go. Where exactly had she decided to run off to when she so irrationally grabbed her trunk and left?

"Okay...er...I could...walk to King's Cross Station and grab the train to...somewhere. Or...or...rent a car! Or steal one! Or...catch the knight bus...or perhaps just sleep out here..." she stopped after saying the Knight Bus. It was the most easy thing to do! She hadn't even ridden the bus herself, but plenty of people did when coming back from parties at friends houses and needed to get back to Hogwarts in time. Obviously, it was not that bad. She stuck out her wand hand, and waited.

BANG! Yep. That was definitely the Knight Bus. The door of the purple, triple Decker, opened, and in the doorframe stood...no one? Er, what now? Did she just walk on?

"Miss...Miss!" someone tiny shouted. Lily finally looked down after the owner of the voice tugged at her shirt. It was a house-elf...A very old one at that.

"Hello miss! I is Smelly the House-elf! Is there a way Smelly can help miss?" asked the house elf, who was adorned in a ragged pillow case, with a bit of pink ribbon tied around the middle...probably to make it look nicer.

Lily nodded. "Er...is this the Knight Bus?"

"Yes, Miss!" said the house-elf. There was a lapse of silence, and then, the house elf, Smelly, tried to make a mad dash for it. She almost made it down the steps, but a large, rough hand grabbed her pilowcase and pulled her back.

"Oh, no you don't!" The voice was slow, deep, and calming. It was a very large black man, dressed in a drivers uniform. He, obviously, was the bus driver. "Bloody house-elf. Couldn't do her job for a million galleons. Always taking a run for it..." He motioned for Lily to come inside, and Lily entered. There were rows of tables and chairs on the first floor, and several people were sitting, and drinking their coffee slowly, and looking up lazily as the driver came in.

"Dear god, can't you move any faster?" asked a portly looking man

"Hold your horses, bloke. There's no need to rush," The driver said. His name tag read Achebe. He then took out a dog choke chain and held it up. "Been considerin' putting this thing onto Smelly. She's been acting up, and I found this piece of junk in some muggle store. S'pose to slow em' down or something." he said.

"Get movin'!" a witch with frizzy grey hair and a nasal voice said. "I've got places to be!"

"Alright, alright...You, red-haired witch. You'll be owing me four galleons. Just raised the price yesterday from 3 galleons. You know, prices are going up..." he said. Lily nodded and dug some coins out of her bag and handed them to him. "And...where will you be going, again?"

"Er..." she thought rushed for a place to be. Well, the only magical place she knew of, besides Hogwarts and Hogsmeade was..."Diagon Alley."

"Alright, then..." Achebe said, slowly. He turned to leave, but stopped and turned back around. "Would you mind putting this around Smelly? Then, kindly tie her to that pole right there... I haven't got an idea of how this thing works," he said. Lily nodded uncertainly, and took the choke chain from the man's large fist. "Thank ya'."

Lily sat down and pondered where to begin. How did one put a dog's choke chain around a house-elf? _A pretty disturbed one, at that_, Lily thought as she spotted Smelly the house-elf prancing around and bobbing her head. She even once tried to dash away as she had when standing at the door. Except, this time, she had hit the wall, as there was no where to run. Finally, Lily decided she would just call the elf over. They were always supposed to obey, weren't they?

"Er...Smelly? Come'ere, would you?" she asked, as politely and falsely nice as possible. Smelly skipped over jovially and grinned, reveal straight, gleaming white teeth, except for one tooth missing in the very front.

"What can Smelly do for miss?" she asked.

"Would you...er, mind if I put this...toy around your neck?" Lily asked pausing here and there, weighing her words.

"Miss...has a toy for Smelly?" For a moment, Smelly looked like she might cry...which she did. Smelly burst into loud wails and fell to the floor, hitting it with her fists. "NEVER! In Smelly's whole life! A _gift_!"

"Sh! Be quiet...er...yes, a gift! Just, be quiet before we get into trouble!" Lily said rushed, as several people sitting at adjacent tables glared angrily. They were also probably mad because the bus was going extremely slow...a screaming house elf was not improving things at all. Gradually, Smelly quieted down and looked at Lily.

"So, what is Miss's gift to Smelly?"

"Well, I've got this shiny...er...thing--no, necklace! Yes, necklace, that goes around your neck! So...just turn around there, and I'll put it on for you, okay?" Lily said, cheerily. Perhaps that would help to fool the house elf. It didn't take much though, because Smelly was easily persuaded, and did not suspect a thing, as Lily put the chain around the house elf's neck, and then tied it to the pole.

"Well, all done! Now you can...er, go and run off wherever you please...Go on..." said Lily. Really, she did feel guilty, but that house elf had been knocking over tables and running into walls. Cutting off her air supply with a choke chain would do the elf wonders.

Smelly grinned and thanked her, then began to run forward. But after the chain ran out, and Smelly continued to try and run further, the chain tightened around her neck and Smelly shrieked in terror. "EEK!!!!" Was the only word Smelly could compose, as air was being cut off form her, and she didn't seem to realize that running further away would only continue to make matters worse for her. So, Lily leaned back in her chair, relaxing, as Smelly would be screaming, it seemed, for the whole ride there. And at the speed they were going...Lily closed her eyes. It would be a long night.

"Diagon Alley?" said a low rumble for a voice. Definitely Achebe. Lily snapped her head up, awaking from her reverie. They were in front of the Leaky Cauldron, and she could just spot the pink glow of early morning in the sky.

"Right, that would be me," Lily said, getting up and stretching, and not forgetting to yawn loudly. Several people around her gave her envious looks-- they would be waiting on that bus for a few more hours. Lily went off the bus, and stood there, watching the Knight Bus move away slowly. Even the BANG that it disappeared with was slightly boring. Lily remained standing there for quite some time, trunk handles clutched in her fists, and a series of questions running through her head. She had nearly three weeks left (really, it was closer to 4) until school started again. Where was she to stay? Well, they had places in the Leaky Cauldron, of course...and then, some people lived above their shops...but she didn't know anyone that did that, so she couldn't stay with them. She could, as it was always an option, be homeless for a few weeks, sleeping outside of Gringotts (where it was safest... no one dared try to rob Gringotts with Goblins around).

Well, no other choice really- Stay at the Leaky Cauldron. But, where would she get the money from? Rooms in the Leaky Cauldron did not come expensive, but they were not cheap either. Lily shrugged. It was, she supposed, time to get a job in Diagon Alley. So, Lily grabbed her trunk, and walked into the leaky cauldron, and rang the bell because no one was behind the counter. A young boy around his late teens walked up with a rag in his hand. "I've got this one, Gramps!" he yelled as he walked out.

"So, what can I do for you, Miss?" he asked.

"Er, I'd like a room...and well, I would like to know how much it is to stay for three weeks and three days?" she asked. It felt awkward asking this and not having more than a galleon in her pocket.

"Well, it costs around twenty galleons for a weeks, and three galleons for one night. So, I reckon that would be about sixty-nine galleons for your whole stay," he said.

"Oh, okay...thanks. Well, I haven't got the money right now. But I'm going off to Diagon Alley to see if I can snag myself a job. Could I maybe leave my stuff here and come back later to get it? And If I've got a job, then I'll get a room here. Sound alright?" Lily asked, hoping with all her might that he would say yes.

"Okay, no problem," he said. Lily let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. It was really that simple, that he had said yes, and she hadn't known why she was so uptight about it.

"Thanks!" Lily said.

"Just leave your trunk there. I'll put it behind the counter myself, so no one will take it. I'll see you," he said, and Lily began off for Diagon Alley.

Lily did the traditional Diagon Alley brick tapping, and walked through. She had been to Diagon Alley countless times, but it always fascinated her every time, and seemed like she had never been there before. Everything looked new to her, even though she knew in her mind that she had been to many of the shops before. She skipped right pass all the normal stores and went straight to the expensive part of Diagon Alley, a subdivision of it called _Sorcerer's Alley_. She had never been to this part, though she almost went to it several times with Diana. Her parents were filthy rich and Diana was always visiting that part of the Alley. But, somehow, Lily had never managed to visit it, as every time there was some kind of distraction. But now, Lily was going to go to it. The shops there were bound to pay more.

She stepped onto the street, which was still crooked, and dirty old bricks, but somehow, Lily felt like she had a lot more space to breathe. She looked up and saw she actually did have a lot more room. The street was a much bigger, enough for cars to go through (though, of course there were none), and the stores and buildings looked clean and were much taller. She got so caught up in it all, Lily almost forgot that she was looking for a job. She realized this while browsing in a wizard's robes store, "Burberry." Who would've thought that a famous muggle clothing company was owned by wizards? The robes in that store were just as expensive as the clothes that were sold in the muggle stores. "1,945 galleons for _this_ robe?" Lily said to her self, incredulous. "I could never afford that!" And that statement was what reminded her of why she was there in the first place.

She walked along the fairly crowded wide street. She saw a lot of business looking wizards, wearing expensive robes, and witches with the latest cloak fashions on. Lily went into several stores, but soon decided that none of them were very good. The pet store she had visited was full of regal looking eagles and snowy white cats. They all looked expensive to care for, and Lily didn't even like animals. She also went into the Official Nimbus Broom Store. Everything there was twenty times more expensive than in "Quality Quidditch Supplies," and Lily did not like Quiddich that much at all. Why she even went in was beyond her. She thought the same of all the other stores she had looked through- Wireless Wizard Network Music Co., Mussolini's Pastries, Sorceress Spa, Zonko's Wholesale, and a few more Lily just didn't recall. They all paid a decent amount, but Lily predicted she wouldn't be very happy working at any of those places.

Just as she was about to give up and settle for sleeping outside of Gringotts, she came to a store that caught her breath. It was possibly the biggest bookstore she had ever seen in her life, probably even bigger than the Hogwarts library itself. And Lily loved books.

She glanced at the name of the store, _J&H Books, _before straightening up and trying to look professional as she walked into one of the biggest stores on that street. It was dark wood inside, with several floors, and an extremely high ceiling. There were book shelves lining every large, expansive wall, and every single shelf had books crammed on it. Even the ceiling had book shelves on it, and Lily wondered how the books stayed up there, then realized that there actually was magic in this world. There were lots and lots of customers scattered around the store, but it didn't look like that much since the store was so immense. Lily was so enraptured by all the wonderful books around her, that she didn't noticed a beautiful woman walk up to her, until she spoke in a polite voice, "Can I help you?"

The lady had extremely long, straight, raven black hair that was darker than night. It was braided in a loose ponytail. Her face held a kind of familiarity to it, with her kind, soft brown eyes (but Lily could catch a kind of sneaky shine in there too), and soft smile. She had pale skin, but this lady was no where close to scary. Lily felt at ease speaking with her.

"Oh, yes, please. I was just wondering if--" but Lily was cut off as a large yell was heard. Someone on the second floor was wrestling with someone else, and they were causing quite a racket. They seemed to be having a very good time though, laughing as they rough-housed each other.

"Ugh. Please excuse me. I'll be right back. I just need to attend to my son," she said, and walked off, while yelling, "James Harold Potter! It'd be in your best interest to stop that right _now_!"

They stopped, but seemed very disappointed. "Aw, come on, Mrs. P! We're just having a bit of fun!"

"Sirius, You won't be having very much fun anymore if you keep that up!" she snapped.

"Mum! You've got to be kidding me!"

"Actually, I'm not. Do you want to go to your room?"

"No, but--"

"_James_? Is that you?" Lily asked, after coming out of her state of momentary shock.

"What? Lily? What are you doing here?!" he asked, blushing furiously, probably at the fact that she was witnessing first hand him and his mother at it. It was rather embarrassing, considering that fact that he was just whining like a five year old. Sirius looked like he might start laughing hysterically at any given moment, as he said "Hello, Evans," in a very restrained voice.

"I'm, er...here to find a job," Lily said, a little embarrassed herself.

"Oh. What for?"

"Well...um...it's a very long story. But I haven't got a place to stay now, so I'm staying in the Leaky Cauldron. But rooms there aren't exactly cheap so I've got to get a job now to pay for that." Lily said. For some reason, she felt like a poor bumbling idiot saying this.

"Er...don't you have a savings account at Gringotts?" Sirius asked uncertainly. Lily paused and realized that she did. In fact, she drew money from it every year to get her school supplies. She had completely forgotten about that, even though she had thought about Gringotts several times during her trip.

"Why don't you just draw money from that?" asked James, completely stating that obvious.

"Well, I forgot!" said Lily, feeling even more like a bumbling idiot than before.

Mrs. Potter sighed, tired of waiting, and said, "James, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" There was a touch of impatience in her voice.

"Oh, this is Lily Evans, Mum. She's one of my friends from school. Lily, this is my mum...she's evil," he added as an afterthought.

"Shut your trap, James, before I prove to you that I'm actually evil."

"Too late," he muttered, but she ignored his comment and continued on to talking to Lily.

"So, Lily, why haven't you got a place to stay?" She asked. There was concern etched on her face, but Lily still felt awkward telling her this story. No one really knew what her sister and her brother-in-law were like, and here this lady was, someone she hardly knew, asking Lily to tell her.

"Er...well, you see...I got into a bit of a row with my sister and her fiance, because I'm supposed to be staying with them this summer since...my...well, because I've got to. And we don't really have the same views, and so I got kicked out, or rather, I was told to leave and I complied without thinking, so now I can't go back and I've got to stay somewhere. So I chose the Leaky Cauldron," Lily said, leaving out a few things like her parents had died, and toning down a few things like the row she had with Vernon and Petunia.

"Oh. I see," she said. "Well, why don't you just stay with your parents?" she asked, only acting like any normal adult would and stating the most reasonable choice.

"Well, er...it's...um, because..." Lily was feeling very reluctant to tell. Even Sirius and James looked uncomfortable.

Mrs. Potter looked at her expectantly, wondering why she was stuttering so much. Lily decided she would simply say it. It was just the truth, and she might as well say.

"My...my parents have died from an attack by deatheaters," Lily mumbled. Mrs. Potter seemed to have caught every word though, as she said "Oh," softly under her breath, and blushed slightly. She hadn't realized it was like that, and felt ashamed for asking.

"Well, why don't you just stay here with us? I mean, you are friends with James, and I wouldn't want you wasting money on a room at that horrid Leaky Cauldron. There's only three weeks left, after all...and, we've got plenty of extra rooms..." Mrs. Potter offered.

"Oh," Lily said, taken off guard. That was certainly not expected, though a welcome suggestion all the same. "Well, I mean, I wouldn't want to impose--" Lily said.

"Don't be silly! James, take her to a room and show her where everything is," she said, sounding business-like again, while ordering her son around. He didn't seem to mind though, and was smiling broadly.

"Sure, Mum. Come on Lily."

"Where's your things, dear?" Asked James' mum.

"I left it at the Leaky Cauldron because I thought I was staying there," Lily explained.

"Sirius, go fetch her things, and bring them here." she ordered.

"Aw, Mrs. P!'

"Go, Sirius," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Fine..." he grumbled, shooting Lily an accusing glare, though she could spot that he wasn't really angry.

"Come on, Evans, I'm showing you our house," James said, smirking.

Lily sighed. It had been a long day.

A/N: Hey, how was it? I tried to make it long. Sorry I skipped over the rest of the year, but that's just how the story works. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review!


	13. Meet the Parents

Disclaimer: This simply delish, dawlin' mastapiece ain't mine. Isn't it precious, though?

****

The Wind Through My Hair

James had lead her up stairs to the actual house, which was on the 5th floor of the book store. You went near a rather tall, ornate window with a gold frame, twisted in an intricate pattern. The window overlooked the bustling streets of diagon alley, and the store across the street, _Whimsical Wands. _That particular wand store was outrageously expensive, but their wands were not quite as popular as Ollivander's. Ollivander's had, after all, been there for a while and were renowned for their wand-making skills.

James had stood by the window and held his wand in some general area (it was probably more precise, but Lily did not know what exactly had to be done in order to access the Potters' living quarters), and said something in French (or she assumed so), catching words like "Potier" and "Ouvre."

"Just a bit of a safety precaution. You know...parents a bit paranoid," he said embarrassedly, after a really grand, marble staircase spiraled slowly down from the ceiling and a space to climb through at the top appeared. Lily was not really bothered with the safety precautions, as he called them. She was too speechless to really say anything. The staircase was so large and really very elegant. Probably worth hundreds of galleons, just in the fancy, dark wood railing itself.

James began climbing the staircase a bit cautiously, as if he was waiting for her approval. Lily hadn't moved, only staring at how it had made such a wonderful entrance. She shook herself out of her reverie, however, when she realized James was giving her an anxious look. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just fine," Lily only managed. She began to climb the staircase, but could not keep in her enthusiasm. "That was really great, James! Wow, I reckon this staircase just about tops any of the others at Hogwarts, really. Though, I suppose you hiding the staircase to your home is sort of like security?"

James seemed slightly uncomfortable talking about it, but answered all the same. "Too right. My parents...well, they're about known pretty well, so they think they ought to put in something like this, if you know. Bit of a hassle if I do say so myself, but then, it's better than nothing, I suppose."

They continued walking up the stairs, which seemed to last for some time, until finally reaching the top and entering an extravagant, high-ceilinged room with a very, _very _large chandelier dangling above them, at least bigger than the average person's bathroom. The walls were dark brown, but the room was so large, the dark walls hardly made it feel anything close to confining. There was a nice Persian rug in the middle of the room, under a coffee table which was surrounded by comfy looking couches and chairs. A few of the walls had book shelves on them, and there was a large fireplace with a roaring fire lit. It gave Lily the distinct impression of a Library. For some reason, finding James constantly living in something of a place of quiet and order made Lily amused. It was no wonder James was never even near the library at school. He must've been right sick of it.

There was a pool table among various others things scattered about the room, but James did not wait for Lily has he walked briskly through the room and into one of the many doors leading out. He opened one to the far left by the fireplace, and went in. Lily followed him, not wanting to be left alone in such a large house. However, she'd have to go back and hang about in that room a while. It gave her a cozy feeling, and made her really comfortable and sleepy.

The next room they went through was not large at all, but the size of a normal kitchen. It wasn't really enclosed, but more open than anything. There was no doors, just the kitchen was there, and you could walk away from it and be in the den the next second, or the door leading to some other room in a another. The kitchen seemed to be the heart of the house, and you could anywhere from there. Really great idea, considering Sirius and James were constantly in need of food and could access it from anywhere in the house. In fact, now that Lily really looked at it, the rather large room was circular, and in the middle was the kitchen bar and counters. You just went off from that to any of the doors which enclosed it.

"You're room will be any of those three rooms on the right. You can choose what you like. They're all pretty much the same, but with different decorating. I'd avoid the shocking pink one if I were you; Gave me nightmares when I had to sleep in there while my own was being renovated," said James. Lily turned to the very right of the kitchen to find three identical doors in a row.

"AGH!" Sirius yelled. It appeared as if, while opening the door to enter the room they were in, he had lost concentration in the large trunk he was levitating, and it drop on his foot. "EVANS! What in the bloody name of Merlin have you got shoved in this trunk?! It's heavier than anything I've ever carried in my bloody life!" he sputtered, all the while trying to shove the trunk off of his oxygen deprived foot.

"Oh, well don't be worried Black, it's only got everything I own in there," she replied. dripping with sarcasm. "I would have left about half of it where I _ran away from_, but you know, it'd be a bit hard to come back and get it all later."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You must have used one heck of an expanding charm on this trunk to cram everything you own in here. No wonder it's heavier than Hagrid," he said. "So, where do I drop this load?"

"I've yet to choose a place to sleep, thanks to your dramatic entrance into the room, but I suppose any will do," Lily said.

"I think you should choose the middle room," said Sirius. "By far the best."

"It isn't that lurid pink one that James was warning me against, is it?"

"Nah, that's the one on the left. This ones just beyond the very best. You've got to stay in this one." said Sirius.

"Alright then," said Lily, moving towards the middle room and opening the door, only to walk into a very cold, stone dungeon looking room. "Er...is this what you usually like, Sirius?" she asked, uncertainly.

James and Sirius were sniggering. Though the joke had not been that amusing, Lily had a tendency to take things very seriously and literally, never really thinking it may be a joke. In this case, she still had not realized Sirius had only tried to trick her, and she still thought that he honestly liked that room the best. Granted, he was a fairly good actor, but still...

"Evans, I was only joking. This room is decorated mainly for James weird uncle, Lester. He seems to like dank, moldy sleeping areas. Hey, someone has got to," said Sirius.

"Oh. Well, then I supposed I'll be staying in that other room," said Lily going for the room on the right, trying to avoid the pink room at all costs.

"Ah, no, Evans. I don't think you will. I've got that room under mighty Sirius rule already, so you'll have to choose one of the other two. Really, though, I'd prefer anything to that ghastly pink mess Jamsie's mother calls a guest room."

"That grey piece of work I'd just seen wasn't exactly heaven either. Really...I suppose I'll at least take a peek into this 'horrible' pink room you two hate so much. Can't hurt," Lily said, as she reached for the door and opened it. She looked in, and her eyebrows shot up. She'd been expecting the worst, but this was really not what she had expected. It was not that bad. On the contrary, it was undoubtedly much nicer than her old room, and could give the Head's room at Hogwarts a run for its money. There was a king sized bed in the middle of the room with extremely light pink and white comforter an sheets, as well as a canopy above it, draped with lace. The tall windows were decked in the same light pink and white droopy curtains, and the carpet was simply just another shade of pink, more reddish-pink than anything else. There was a polished wood dressed before the bed, with a nice looking mirror on it, and several other drawers as well. Inevitably, it was more girly than Lily would prefer; Okay, so it was the most girly room anyone could imagine, but Lily was a girl, and she didn't mind the pink at all. She shrugged and walked in, pretty happy with the room she ended up with.

"You can put my stuff in here, Sirius," said Lily, as she jumped onto the bed, which, I might add, was the most comfortable thing she'd ever laid on. Lily turned to look at them, and saw a an expression of utter, and complete disgust on their faces.

"You can't _honestly_ say you want to stay in here, do you? It's absolutely appalling!" said James.

"Ugh. I think I might barf up daisies if I stay in here much longer," said Sirius, genuinely feeling slightly ill from all the pink surrounding him.

"Oh, boys, it's not as bad as you made it out to be. Really, James, this pink isn't tacky at all! It's matching with everything!" said Lily.

"Well, I guess you can only expect that from girls," muttered Sirius darkly.

"Expect what?" snapped Lily.

"Expect that your sort would be attracted to gaudy decor such as _this_," said James, while making hand motions to show her was talking about the room.

"You are just tasteless! I'd like to see _your _room and how 'nice' it is in comparison to this!" Lily said.

"Fine, then. Follow me. You can see for yourself-- it won't be hard to prove you wrong. Anything looks good in comparison to that trash," James said.

Sirius rolled his eyes, again. "Although I can spot the obvious sexual tension between you two, and that you're trying to sort it out by going to James's room and shagging yourselves senseless, I'd like to remind you, Jamesie-poo, that you and I had arranged a nice little bit of Quidditch before Miss Evans came along."

"Fine, fine, let's go then. Evans, you up for a round? It'd be a little more fun with more than two people playing," said James.

"Er..."

"Let's go then, don't want to keep the sky waiting, do we?" asked Sirius, not patient enough to wait for her answer. Besides, who in their right mind said no to a game of Quidditch? Lily would have, had she been given an option to do so. She was not so good at flying, even with that short period in time when she was given lessons from James.

James sped off to a closet, which revealed several dustpans, an actual broom to sweep the floor with, and at least five racing brooms. He grabbed three and dashed back to them, throwing one to Sirius, as he caught it in midair without an problems, and one to Lily, who did not catch it quite so easily. The moment James had gotten rid of two of the brooms he'd been holding, he jumped onto the broom remaining while running, and zipped around the room a few times. Sirius did the exact same immediately after catching his own. Lily stood nervously in the middle of it all, placing her broom gingerly on the ground and placing her hand over it. According to _How to Fly Safely and Not Get Injured 100%, Even While Riding Through a Hurricane, _this was the only, and approved way to start. "Up!" Lily said. The broom slowly, _very_ slowly, wobbled up, level with her hips. She then cautiously climbed into it and closed her eyes, trying to think of something that would make the broom rise.

So, just as she had with lesson with James, she thought of the wind all around her, rushing past her and zipping her all around, exactly like Sirius and James were managing at the moment. Of course, Lily did not seem to recall being jerked off her own broom and onto the ground, because she could not seem to control the broom. Which is exactly what happened as Lily shot into the air and sent flying like mad all around the room. Sirius looked at her, impressed, thinking she was doing this on purpose, while James slapped his forehead. _Not again, _he though miserably. _How hopeless as flying could she get?_

Lily was gripping tightly onto the handle, trying to think fast before she crashed into something valuable, or injured herself severely. _Maybe if I move the direction of the handle, it'll change directions!_ thought Lily as the broom continue to fly around in circles. She jerked her hands to the left, a bit more forcefully than she'd intended to, and went lurching straight for a closed door.

"Ahh!" Lily said, preparing to hit headlong into the door. However, she hit the door only slightly before it flew open with a bang, and she heard Potter yelling "Ouvre la porte Potier!" She zoomed into the first room she'd seen, with the fireplace and persian rug, and here there was much more space to go flying around in. James could be seen flying in swiftly after her, trying to get a hold of her and bring her out of control broom down to earth again. He thought has hard as he could, to try and catch up with her. What if she crashed into one of his father's rare artifacts from Thailand or such? He'd be in a bloody mess is that happened. Faster, faster! He willed te broom to go, as it sped up considerably, and he began to catch up with Evans's broom.

Unfortunately, James will was a bit too strong, as he crashed into the back of her broom and they both tumbled headlong into a large, oriental lamp sitting on a small table. The lamp fell to the floor and shattered into a million pieces, then turned into a mix of colorful dust before it even hit the ground. Lily and James both fell on the ground with a resounding thump, brooms nearly knocking them in the head. James rubbed the back of his head in pain and winced as Lily groaned for her injuries as well.

"Ugh...that was painful..." said Lily.

"Ah! My dad's vase! Ah, no...this can't be good." said James. He looked to Sirius despairingly, and hoping he had some sort of plan in mind, but only saw that Sirius was not looking at him, but at the door, and with a look of discomfort on his face.

"No. This cannot be good at all," said a man in the doorway. For a brief moment, there was utter silence, and James graced his features with an unreadable expression.

"Well, James, I suppose you'll be cleaning up this mess from your foolish horseplay and then, you'll get yourself washed up for dinner. There will be no Quidditch for you for a week, of course, and I expect next time I arrive home from a long trip away from home, I'll find my son dressed properly enough and not in such a state when arrive," he said curtly, and as if speaking to James as if her were a child being scolded.

Lily looked from father to son and found a surprising difference. They could not have been anymore different from each other. If Lily had to imagine James's father, this was definitely not it. The man standing before her could have easily been Frank Longbottom's father, who apparently had very strict parents; but not James, the infamous troublemaker. This man had jet black hair as his son did, but it was not unruly and windswept. On the contrary, it was neatly parted with a very strict line, and too groomed for comfort. His plain navy blue robes were press ironed, and his shoes were spitting clean. His face was similar to James, except there was lines in his face from the years, and no playful glimmer in his eyes; only stone cold seriousness could be seen.

And, to even greater surprise, James replied quietly, "Yes sir." That was possibly the most obedient Lily had ever heard him. There was no sarcasm in his voice as he said it, or no mocking tone somewhere in his words. Just simple enough, and yet it blew Lily's mind to pieces. She'd thought he'd be some rebelling teenager- but he was not. His voice had taken on a very controlled sound, and he immediately stood up straighter and a different aura took him. It was more humble, more saddened, or scared. It reminded Lily of a young boy still afraid of his father after he'd broken some rule. Which_, _Lily reminded herself, he had just done.

Mr. Potter gave Lily a sweeping look and nodded, acknowledging her presence before walked out of the room. "Wash up for dinner James. And change your clothes. I think brushing your hair a bit goes without saying as well," he said without sparing his son so much as a second glance. As he walked out, even Sirius had a slight little-boy look to him. Mr. Potter was very intimidating. Lily herself felt ashamed to have broken something in someone else's home when they had so graciously invited her to stay.

James heaved himself up and sighed in a defeated sort of way. He did not lift his face and did not meet neither Lily's nor Sirius's eyes. His eyes were averted to the ground as she bent down and began to pick up the large, broken shards of what used to be a lamp. Lily stood there, puzzled, confused, and feeling very awkward. She felt like she had missed something crucial from the abrupt change in James attitude; it went swiftly from joyous and happy to that of a depressed and sad little boy. Lily especially felt left out of the loop because Sirius seemed to know exactly what was going on as he gave James a pitying look and bent down to help pick up the broken glass.

Lily went to her room and began to unpack her clothes. She hated unpacking more than anything. In fact, packing was no problem at all for her; it always gave her the feeling that she was going somewhere exciting, or just somewhere different. But unpacking always made her feel as if the adventure was over, and it was simply back to the dull pace of normality again. However, this particular time, Lily did not mind unpacking just a bit. The adventure was far from over, and she had to get ready for dinner in the _Prestigious House of Potier_, as their official family title, more of a slogan really, said. Lily decided that a pair of nice pants and a normal shirt ought to do, as it was only James's house. James and Sirius were two of the most laid-back people she had ever met in her life, and she couldn't imagine a very formal dinner. So, donning some relatively casual black pants and a white shirt, she went through the door James had instructed her to go through. There were at least 5 different doors in her room, and she couldn't begin to fathom where they all lead. But enough experience told her not to meddle, as she'd most certainly get lost in the gigantic house.

The door bought her back into the many-sided room with the kitchen in the middle, and there, James and Sirius were waiting for her. "Took enough time," said Sirius testily. "I'm starving, and wanted to leave without you. But James, ever the gentleman, insisted we wait; didn't want you getting lost."

"Oh, well, thanks for not listening to Sirius," Lily said, to a rather subdued James.

"Sure, no problem," he said. James took the lead and began to walk toward another indistinguishable door, and lead them through it, walking right into a rather grand dinner table. Another chandelier decked the small-sized room (in comparison to the others, anyways) with light. The table was large and round, made of ivory with painstaking detail on the wood legs and rim. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were already seated next to each other. Sirius took a seat next to Mrs. Potter, James next to Mr. Potter, which left Lily the seat across from them.

"Good Evening," said Mr. Potter, formally.

"Good evening to you as well, Mr. Potter," Lily said, trying her best to be her most polite. She was feeling a slight uneasy under his gaze. Mrs. Potter looked as pleasant as ever, smiling, and was quite the stark contrast sitting next to her husband who looked extremely serious.

The house elf walked in, with a very large tray of food. Lily was surprised that the elf was not even staggering or stumbling beneath the weight, but walking with a mild skip, as usual. "Smelly has masters' dinner! Enjoy!" she said. Lily almost jumped out of her seat in surprise after recognizing the elf's face, and then having her beliefs confirmed after the elf smoke her name. Smelly promptly skipped out again, humming a little off-key.

"Ah, this looks delicious. I suppose we can all begin then," said Mr. Potter, addressing the matter as if it was a daily business meeting. James looked pained at how formal his father was acting, and, now that Lily noticed, Mr. Potter was dressed up as well. Lily looked at what they were all wearing, and was suddenly painfully aware that they were all far from casually adorned. James hair was still as messy as ever, but he was wearing expensive looking dress robes. The same could be said for Sirius. Mr. Potter was wearing what looked like a very starched and ironed bit of plain black robes, and Mrs. Potter a nice evening dress. Lily tried not to think about what clothes she was wearing, and ignore the feeling of stupidity.

James timidly picked up his knife and fork. He sliced his steak into a bite-sized piece and placed it into his mouth. Lily's jaw almost fell open; never, in her life, had she seen James Potter actually slice his food and chew it. She had only ever seen him inhale. She turned to look at Sirius disbelievingly, but he was doing that as well. There was absolute silence at the table, except the clink of silverware, and Lily felt as if the silence should not be disturbed.

"So, Lily, was it? I don't believe we've met before. I'm James's father," Mr. Potter said. Lily almost rolled her eyes, but stopped herself. Of course she knew by now that he was his father. Lily then realized she was supposed to reply, but could not think of anything to say. He already knew her name, so what now? She was spared the trouble.

"Your surname's Evans, is it? Yes, I don't think I've heard of that family name before. Muggle-born, I presume?" he asked. Lily nodded mutely. "You look to be Irish. Where's you family line from?"

"Yes, we are Irish, though I suppose we've got a couple of other nationalities in there. And you sir?" Lily asked, afraid. He had a sort of power about him that made you feel inferior.

"Well, my mother was Asian, but my father was French. Which would explain why our lot look far from French. My wife's Asian as well, but we've still been carrying _Potier_, or Potter, as some call it, as the last name." Lily did not know what else to say besides nod and smile politely.

"Which reminds me, James. I'm off to France for another business trip in a few says. Seems the French Ministry is having a bit of problems with our own, saying the European Magic Alliance favors Hogwarts over Beauxbatons," said Mr. Potter.

"_What? _But, dad, you've only just come home! I've not seen you for more than two minutes!" James protested, bursting out angrily. It was quite the change.

"Silence, James. I expect _Yes Sir_, next time. I come home to visit my family, and I expect respect from my own son, is that clear?" He said sternly.

"But--" James began, but stopped at the stern, cold look his father was giving him. James nodded, looking downcast, and muttering, "Yes Sir."

"How long will you be gone, dear?" Asked his wife, looking slightly angry as well as alarmed.

"I don't really know. I'll probably be back before the end of holidays. Let's move onto other topics, shall we?" His tone clearly suggested they had closed the subject. Everyone complied, and stopped talking, but they did not say anything else throughout dinner. James finished early, though there was still food left on his plate, and excused himself, getting up abruptly from the table.

"Good night, everyone," he muttered.

"Wait, James. We'll meet in my study at the usual time? We've not talked in ages, and I'd like to know what is going on in my son's life," said Mr. Potter. James nodded and left without another word.

When dinner ended, Lily went to her room and threw herself on that fluffy pink bed, her body was left splayed there as she fell asleep before she even realized it. So much had happened, she could hardly believe it. Lily had not known there were so many hours in a day.

A/N: ah, well, finished with that bit. Next chapter were will be more interesting that the last two have been. Hoped it was okay and I didn't put you to sleep. Seriously, I hope this is up to scratch. Review, or else! =D P.S. Thanks to all the people who have already reviewed! I owe my story to you! Remember... more reviews make me more dedicated to write! Muahaha! The more the reviews, the quicker you receive your chapter! I am so evil.


	14. Me and the Head Boy

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or events associated with Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling owns everything! Except my creative juices that helped to form this plot and writing.

****

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily woke up very reluctantly as she fumbled out of the very soft bed. When she had fully opened her eyes, she had wished she hadn't chosen such a pink room. It gave her a shock as well as a slight headache. The pink, believe it or not, was ghastly to look at when it was so early in the morning. Actually, it was not that early, only 10 o' clock in the morning, but it always _feels_ early when you just wake up.

Lily got changed into a pair of robes, deciding she was going to explore Diagon Alley, and turned to go to the bathroom. Only, she did not know where the bathroom was, and through which door she was supposed to go. There were at least five doors in that room, and they could all very well lead her to anywhere. Lily shuddered to think of all the awkward situations she could walk in on. She shrugged and sat down; perhaps if she thought about it logically, she could use process of elimination to figure out which door would possibly lead her to her to the bathroom.

Well, of course every room had a door that lead the circular room with the kitchen. And then, she remembered the first room she had seen that reminded her of a library contained a lot of doors; it would only make sense for every room to have a door leading there. So, two doors down, only three to go. Well, that was easy enough; she could go through each of the three, and see which one lead her to the bathroom. She already knew which door lead her to the kitchen, so she skipped that one, and opened the next door. It was the library. Next door opened into a long, dark and narrow hallway. Lily groaned as she realized that there were _more _doors in that hall. Lily decided that she had better check the others before venturing into that hall, but she then thought that she'd eventually have to check it out anyways. So Lily walked in and checked each door on each side of the hall, unearthing some really kempt rooms like studies, a room full of artifacts, and even a greenhouse. She also found some old, dusty rooms, that looked as if they hadn't been touched in years.

Finally, Lily reached the end of the hall, and the very last door. Unlike the others, the light was on in this one. She extended her hand to turn the knob, until she realized that there were people in the room from the muffled talking. Her curiosity got the better of her as she strained her ears to listen, in the end, resorting to pressing her ear against the door.

"I cannot believe him sometimes, Sirius, I really can't!"

"I know you're upset mate, but your dad's only trying to look out for you," said Sirius.

"Sirius, that's not even the worst of it. Do you know what he said to me? Do you?" said James. Even when Lily couldn't hear his voice properly, she could tell that his tone of voice was a mixture of anger and pain.

"What did he say?" Sirius could be heard sighing, resignedly.

"He said...he said that I don't work hard enough and I'm not making him proud like Damian had done. Does he even _know_ how much it hurts to be compared to Damian? He just...totally went off on how I wasn't going up to his expectations, and a load of dung about my future. I don't even _know_ how we started talking about that. And comparing me to Damian...I cannot believe that; after what he's become."

"Hey...you, uh, make _me_ proud..." said Sirius. Obviously he was not practiced at this.

"I don't care if I make _you _proud, ya' git. Don't get me wrong, you're my mate and all, but it's just not the same. I just want to make _him_ proud. I must sound like a real git right now," James said, letting out a hollow laugh.

Lily walked away, feeling very awkward, and ashamed for having listened on such a private conversation. She couldn't help wondering though, who was Damian? Lily had never thought of James as that type, to want to make his parents proud. She hadn't known a lot about him, and suddenly, Lily felt her heart go out to him. Lily could simply not imagine her own parents pressuring her like that, or being disappointed in her. Thinking of her parents caused a stab of pain she had not expected, but thankfully, it was not as strong as it had been the last time she had thought about them.

As suddenly as the pity had come, it had gone, replaced by slight annoyance. James must not like his parents very much, from the sound of it, and it made Lily aggravated. He just didn't appreciate his parents, did he? James had his own mother and father right there and now, and he was totally ungrateful. Lily had lost her own parents and did not fully appreciate them until now. _I'm a little late, aren't I. _Lily though, bitterly. However, Lily was not totally blinded by anger, and still had a rational part of her mind working; perhaps she was misjudging James? After all, until now, she hadn't realized she knew so little about him.

__

Well then, that settles it. I'm going to find out about James. Well, what else could she do? He was letting her stay in her home- the least she could do is get to know him.

xxx

Coincidentally, the very next door in her room was the bathroom, and had she not explored all those other rooms in that hall, she would have been done at least an hour ago and at breakfast (or maybe even finished). The bathroom was almost as large as the room itself, with a large, shallow bathtub, big enough for Lily to sprawl out in and sleep in, if there was no water in it. Across from the tub were two sinks, both with five different taps on it. Lily tested each of them, and found they worked not differently from the taps in the Head boy and Head girl's bathroom. The floor was clear, and looked like wet ice, but surprisingly enough, it was warm, probably to keep you comfortable after you stepped out of the water. Lily was impressed, but since everything else in the house was so extravagant, the surprise factor had worn off.

It took Lily several tries to find the tap that had normal water in it so she could brush her teeth ad wash her face. A quick wash, and she was ready to go out and face Potter's parents again. It was nerve wrecking for some reason, even though her and James were not close at all, and Lily was normally very calm in situations with adults. It just seemed so different with _other _people's _parents. _Lily did not make the mistake of looking casual, and brushed her hair, straightened her robes, and made sure she was glowing and healthy looking before heading out.

She walked out and headed for the door in her room that lead to the kitchen. She opened the door but stopped walking out when she heard voices; Lily had thus far avoided any awkward confrontations or interrupted any really private conversations, and she did not want to start now.

"I thought he said he was leaving in a few _days_?" asked James.

"Yes, Love, I know he said that. But your father's a very busy man," Mrs. Potter said with a stern face. But upon seeing the look on her own son's features, her demeanor become softer. "I know you wanted him to stay longer, but it can't be helped. I'll be downstairs opening the store, alright?"

"Alright, mum," he mumbled, as she swept away.

Lily stared at him, and James seemed to have felt a pair of eyes on him as he turned to look back.

He gave her a strained smile. "Dad's a busy guy, y'know? It's no problem..."

"I..." Lily thought about saying she quite understood, but really, she had no experience in this matter, and decided to simply try to make him feel better. She had never seen James look like that- he always seemed so happy; and why shouldn't he be? His life was perfect. "I'm going to Diagon Alley today. Thought I might explore it a bit. I could use a guide," Lily said, smiling at him.

"Ah, my fair lady, after you," said James, as he went into a mock half-bow and motioned for her to move ahead. "I shall show you the bustling and historic streets of Diagon Alley. If you would just follow right through that door, madam..."

xxx

It was at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor that Lily and James finally sat down after walking for about an hour at a small table for three that was outside in the sunshine. Lily couldn't help but feel she was in the 1920's or something, with the old fashioned styled ice cream shop. Sirius had gone along, and he was currently getting the ice cream (as he had so enthusiastically volunteered). Lily realized this was her chance to get to know James.

"So James, what's your favorite color?"

"What?" he asked. It did sound strange and out of the blue, after all.

"You heard. What's your favorite color?"

"Um, Red. Why do you ask?"

"What's your favorite subject?" Lily asked, completely disregarding any other comments besides answers to her questions.

"Transfiguration," he said, still getting over confusion.

"What's your favorite cologne?"

"What sort of question _is_ that?"

"Just answer it!" Lily snapped. How was she supposed to learn anything about him if he just kept making the conversation difficult?

"I don't really have one...but I suppose...well, _no_, I don't suppose anything. I don't _have_ a favorite cologne. What sort of git has a favorite?"

"What's your favorite...er..." Lily glanced around her for suggestions. "Ice cream?"

"Chocolate."

"_Chocolate_? That is so boring!" Lily exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me you don't like some weird ice cream with a long title that's original? Just..._chocolate?"_

"Yes, chocolate! What's wrong with chocolate?"

"You don't like Rocky Road, or Cookies and Cream, or Chocolate Chip, or Banana Nut Muffin, or Butter Pecan, or Double Chunk Chocolate?"

"As long as it's got chocolate...all tastes the same to me. I don't see the point of this, what are you going at?" James asked.

Lily had to think of more questions. These weren't good enough, and she wasn't learning anything. What was something guys liked talking about?

"What sort of _girls_ do you like?" she asked, without thinking.

James stared at her blankly until he broke into a smirk. "Ah, I see _now_. You just wanted to pretend to ask all those questions, and then see what sort of girl I like to see if I like you, right? Hah, Lily Evans, you are _sly_!" he said, cheekily. Lily felt herself go pink.

"I did _not _ask that because I want to know if you like me!"

"Well, if you really want to know...I like girls with...._red hair!" _James said smirking so profoundly it irked Lily more than it ever had before. He was teasing her. "Hm, what else do I find attractive? Well, a pair of really gorgeous green eyes are _a must_."

"Oh, shut up!" Lily said. She was progressively turning more and more pink.

"Then, she's got to be shorter than me, oh yes, can't have a taller girl, now can we? And...what else do I have to have? Well her name _has_ to be Lily. I won't date anyone _without _the name Lily," he said. His smirks were borderline hysterical laughter.

"You're so bloody _stupid_," Lily said. She couldn't help herself, but whether it was the humor of the situation or the look on James's face, Lily didn't know, but she burst out laughing. James could not fence in his own laughter anymore, and promptly began as well.

"Ah, you lovebirds getting long well while I'm gone?" Sirius said, feigning a look of hurt while placing a bowl of chocolate ice cream in front of James and strawberry in front of Lily. For himself, he was holding an extremely large bowl, at least twice the size of both Lily and James's combined, filled with many different flavors of ice cream, covered in chocolate syrup, and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. It seemed he had already started, and didn't notice the appalled looks he was receiving from his two friends.

"You're actually going to eat _all of that_?!" Lily asked.

"So, what did you two talk about while I was gone?" Sirius asked, ignoring her.

"That's absolutely disgusting, Sirius," said James. "And Lily asked me a bunch of questions from nowhere. She now knows my favorite cologne, my favorite color, and my favorite ice cream...Hey! You've not got a special sort of ice cream _either_! How come you can criticize me for liking chocolate? That's totally unfair," James said, after spotting Lily's ordinary strawberry ice cream.

"Well, you're popular and your a boy. I just thought complicated ice cream and people like you go hand-in-hand, is all."

"You have lead a very unguided life, my friend," said Sirius, almost half done with his sundae.

"Anyways, back to questions. I've got a whole new batch of them...have either of you got brothers or sisters?" she asked.

Sirius eyes darted so quickly to James, Lily thought she had imagined it, and then responded quickly. "I've got a younger brother. He's a big git, if you know what I mean. I'm sure you already know that I have one though; he goes to Hogwarts, little git," Sirius said darkly.

"Surely you don't hate him, though?" Lily asked, startled at the look in Sirius's eyes.

"Oh no, I don't hate him. I just don't like him, is all. I sure as hell don't love him, if that's what you're wondering."

"Er...what about you James?" Lily asked, hoping to get the subject away from Sirius.

Sirius answered quickly again. "My brother's going to be a 5th year this year. I hope he isn't a prefect- surely Dumbledore isn't _that _off his rocker." Lily raised her eyebrows, and looked at James with her eyebrows raised.

"Um...so, anyways, have you got any siblings, James?" Sirius almost interuppted again, but James answered before he could.

"No. I haven't," James said. It would have been a normal enough answer to any other person, but Lily noticed for a fleeting second a change of emotion in James's eyes and there had been a definite pained note in his voice, though hardly detectable. It was gone as soon as she saw it though, and something told Lily that he didn't want to talk about it. James was smiling now though, and joking with Sirius, and those other emotions that Lily had seen for a second seemed far away.

"Right, we had better get going if you want to see more of Diagon Alley. There's still a lot more, you know," said James, smiling and ruffling his hair. Lily could not forget how he had looked, but pushed it aside. He looked fine now.

xxx

The next week passed by without occurrence, and life at the Potter's became comfortable. Lily become more familiar with all the twists and turns of the house, and she had plenty to keep her occupied. There were enough books to keep her interested for the rest of her life. Over time, Lily had realized that she was insanely jealous of James; he had both his parents, he had enough books to last a lifetime, he was rich, and everyone liked him. The week before school had started, and he received a Cleansweep 7, the latest and most expensive in broom technology, Lily forgot about all the small things about James she had been wondering about and decided that James had the perfect life. She had actually gotten quite close to both of the boys, but still could not drown the nauseating feeling in her stomach whenever she compared her own life to his.

That next week, Hogwarts lettered arrived, and Lily weighed the package in her hand before opening it. It was more heavy than usual. She ripped it open, and a shiny silver badge with the words Head Girl slipped out. Lily let out a shriek of happiness and hugged it to her chest.

"I. AM. HEAD. GIRL! AHH!" Lily shouted, while prancing in a circle around James and Sirius.

"Bloody hell, Lily, you don't have to shout like a banshee!" Sirius tried yelling over her. James nodded wearily.

"Phew, I'm better now. This is so great! I wonder who Head Boy is," Lily said wonderingly. James and Sirius shrugged.

"I dunno, probably Remus or something. You'll find out on the train when you have to hang out in that special compartment, or whatever," said James.

"Segregation," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Hey! Prefects and heads deserve their own compartment for working so hard! It's not segregation!" Lily said.

"Keep telling yourself that," Sirius said.

"Don't worry, I will," said Lily.

"Fine then. Trick yourself," said Sirius.

"Shut up, the both of you," James said while looking at his book list.

xxx

They got their books and, when the day came two days later to leave for the Hogwarts Express, they all left together in a black Jaguar that Mrs. Potter had borrowed from the Ministry.

After going through the platform and arriving on the train, Lily parted ways with James and Sirius, who went to meet up with Remus and Peter. She decided that she'd try to find Diana and Sarah before going to the prefects' and heads' compartment. Checking through every one, she finally found them sitting together with several other of their other mutual friends.

"Hello," Lily said, smirking, and making her Head Girl's badge perfectly visable. Both Sarah and Diana shrieked and hugged her.

"Oh my gosh! You're head girl, Lily!" Sarah said, as if Lily did not already know. "YOU ARE HEAD GIRL! Do you know this?!"

Diana was grinning and telling the other confused girls why they were screaming.

"Wow, it's good to know that we've got someone competent as Head Girl," said Lauren Abbot.

"Thanks," said Lily. "I've got to tell you guys about my summer!" Lily began at the beginning about how she had left Petunia's house in a rage, and how she had flagged down the ultra slow Knight Bus for the first time. When she mentioned she had ended up staying at James's house, nearly all of their jaws dropped. Sona Patil was the first to recover as she jumped up and had a look of excitedness and envy mixed together.

"Oh, shite! How was that? At the lovely James's house for like, an entire month?! You must be the luckiest girl alive!" she said. "I've got to tell Katie!" Sona said, while dashing out of the compartment.

"Er, it really wasn't a big deal," Lily said, as all of their voices were heard at the same time, asking questions and saying how much they wished they were her. Lily soon tired of being asked all these questions- she was tolerable at first, but soon remembered why she had hated them so much. They were the most pointless questions ever, and she excused herself. She did have a reason- she was supposed to be in the compartment giving instructions to the new Prefects.

She arrived in the compartment about five minutes late, and walked in, scanning the small group of people for a face she knew was a 7th year.

Her eyes stopped, ands he shook her head- surely, it was not him? How would she be able to work with him? He called her a mudblood nearly everyday...

"Hello Mudblood Evans," he said with a nasty sneer on his face.

__

"...Snape? How did you become head boy?" really, that was stupid. Of course he was head boy- he made top grades and was a very hard worker. It should have been expected. Lily's mouth was betraying her though. "You're completely rude! You're completely _evil!"_

People in the compartment were beginning to stare. "Evans, if you can't act professional, I think I'll have to have a word with Professor Dumbledore about how immature you are," Snape said, smirking.

"I...You...AGH!" Lily sputtered.

"Right, now that we've agreed on something, we can begin. Prefects, you will patrol in house pairs and check to see no one is misbehaving on the train. It would be most unfortunate if someone fell out of a window or something," he said.

Lily tried to find her voice and take charge as well. She did not want to seem like an idiot. "Right, and...er..." she paused to try and think of something else to say. "Don't abuse your power. Er...you can go now." Everyone scattered lazily and went n different directions down the aisle of compartments.

Lily and Snape had to wait for all the Prefects to leave, then they could go patrol themselves. Lily sent him a glare and walked out of the compartment. "I suppose I'll see you at the meeting tonight," she said. The least she could do was be somewhat civil towards him; they did have to work together for the rest of the year. Lily groaned and it dawned on her just how horrible that was going to be.

A/N: So, what do you think? I was trying to break away from the oh-so-common 'James-as-Head-Boy' situation. I thought this made the most sense, and it should make for interesting situations in their 7th year. So, enjoy! And don't forget to review. =D


	15. Siriusly Angry

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: I think this will be my longest A/N yet! First of all, I'd like to address the response to last chapter. I got some surprised reviews, some polite-but-inquiring reviews, and some really rude, "that's not _cannon_!" reviews. I appreciate all your concerns about James being head boy, and my "accidental" mistake. But let's remember, this is not your story, and it's not J.K. Rowling's story either. So I can very well do whatever I want with it and what happens, happens! Besides…this story is far from over, and I have a lot in store for you. Why so little faith?

Also, sorry for a little wait on this next chapter. I was a little distracted with other things, and with that third Harry Potter movie out, I could hardly concentrate. That movie was, in my opinion of course, a bit disappointing. I guess it wasn't _so_ bad though. Now, onwards to the actual story!

The Wind Through My Hair 

Lily had never really liked Severus Snape. He was, to put it mildly, a little prejudiced, sexist, and not really pleasant to look it. Lily was not usually one to judge on looks, but there was something in the way Snape appeared; like he knew something you couldn't possibly even fathom, or that he was actually very dangerous. Perhaps it was the hair? Or maybe the hard look in his eyes…heck, the effect he had on Lily may have been attributed to that stupid cloak of his that billowed everywhere he went. Whatever it was, she did not like him.

Several times in her life, she had felt rather guilty for judging him like that when she hardly even knew him. Every time James and his friends had subjected him to some sort of humiliation, she tried to help him. He only proved to be too proud to receive help from a girl, or, as he would say, a _mudblood_. So, Lily had come to the conclusion that he was, as she had assumed, not worth her time as a friend. He wasn't exactly an enemy either, but it didn't change the fact that he annoyed her immensely.

Lily ended up patrolling the train separate from Snape—she could not just walk around with him the whole time without previous warning. She had been so flustered, and caught up in her thoughts; she had not noticed that every time she opened a compartment with people she knew, they were acting very odd. She opened a compartment and found James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sitting, conversing, and playing games to pass the time.

"Hello," Lily said, walking in, flopping down in a seat exhaustedly, and looking at them all miserably.

"Oy," said Sirius, offhandedly, as he was concentrating on a game of wizard's chess with Remus.

"Hello, Lily," Remus said politely, and glanced up. He at least had the courtesy to do that much before he resumed his game with Sirius; well, I suppose he could've spared her that much as it was not his turn, but Sirius's, and he seemed to be winning anyways. "Hah, come on, Padfoot, you know you've lost. I'm finally winning against you, and you are just in denial. Come on, just admit defeat!"

"Oh, put a sock in it, you eejit. I'm trying to think," Sirius said.

"Hey Lils!" James said, looking up from his quidditch magazine.

"Don't call me Lils," Lily muttered, almost inaudibly, instead of voicing her annoyance at being called "Lils," like usual. 

"Hello, Lily. S'matter? You look down," said Peter sympathetically.

"Oh, nothing," Lily sighed dramatically, and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, okay then," Peter said, smiling and turning back to eating his cauldron cakes and reading, content with Lily's word.

"Phew, I'm glad you're not upset or anything. For a minute, I thought you were going to kill yourself or something," James said, oblivious to that fact that Lily was indeed upset.

Lily sighed exaggeratedly again, and rolled her eyes. "_Nope_, nothing's wrong," hoping they would catch what she meant.

"Right, will you stop with that heavy breathing, Lily? I'm trying to think," muttered Sirius.

"It's not _heavy breathing_! It's called _sighing_, and there _is_ something wrong, and you would've noticed if you all weren't totally clueless!" Lily said, irritably. They were such blockheads, sometimes.

"Oh, What's wrong then? You should've just said so the very first time Peter asked," James said, rolling is eyes. Lily rolled her eyes in turn, and looked at the ground, muttering something that was not distinguishable.

"Sorry, Lily, didn't catch that," said Peter.

"I said Snape is head boy." For a moment, everything stopped. Perhaps even hearts stopped beating. Sirius looked up from his game with what you might call a look of disgust. Remus simply had his eyebrows raised, Peter looked frightened, and James…well, James did not look happy. His eyes were popping out and he was steadily turning red.

"Er, mate, you might want to breath. You're turning purple," Sirius said, looking at his friend. The spell was broken, and James realized he wasn't getting any oxygen intake. He inhaled and sputtered, shaking his head, then running his hand through his hair out of habit.

"That…that bloody evil incarnate of You-Know-Who is HEAD BOY? Lily, this is totally…completely…  he's _dangerous_! What in the bloody name of Jesus was Dumbledore thinking? You've got to be joking with me! If anyone deserves to be Head Boy, it Remus, not that greasy git!" James might have gone on forever, but Remus interjected cautiously.

"James, it's really no big deal, I don't care that I didn't get Head Boy. Besides, no one really knows if Snape is a Deatheater or not, and he's got terrific grades and really impeccable behavior," he reasoned.

"Yeah, because he's a total teacher suck-up," Sirius added, unnecessarily. "Personally, I'm glad Remmy didn't get to be big scary Head Boy."

The compartment door slid open, and there Snape stood, an awful smirk on his face. "_Ah_, there you are Evans. I thought you'd left your Head Girl duties to rot. It would have been a shame to think you were so irresponsible…"

"Shut up Snivellus," Peter squeaked. Snape rolled his eyes lazily.

"Really, why do you keep such company, Evans? The dork, the Quidditch star wanna-be, the sickly boy, and the poor excuse for a pureblood," he looked at Sirius after giving him his own title. _The poor excuse for a pureblood. _"Honestly, Black, your parents must be so ashamed to have raised such a disappointment," Snape said, glaring contemptuously at Sirius.

"You leave my family out of this," Sirius growling, dog-like.

"Ah, must be gentle with the subject, haven't we? You must be ashamed of yourself as well. I know I would. If I were Deatheater parents like yours, I would be most grieved that my own son turned against me. Talked to them recently, you know. In fact, our families communicate quite often…said just the other day…ah, I can't really reveal. You understand, don't you?" Snape had picked up a sugar-coated tone to his voice, as if they were conversing pleasantly. Sirius seemed to be shaking with anger, and did not look very handsome at that moment.

"You have gone too far, Snape. _Too far_. I suggest you leave right now." Sirius said, his voice extrememly low, though perfectly audible. "NOW!" Sirius bellowed, having whipped out his wand in one fluid motion and pointed it straight at Snape. James, Peter, and Remus had seen it coming a mile away and had jumped up the moment they saw his arm move. James and Peter now had a wary hand on each shoulder.

Snape looked Sirius up and down before turned to leave. "Don't be late for the Heads and Prefects meeting tonight, Evans," he spat.

Sirius collapsed back into his seat and folded his arms. He looked furious, to say the least, and frankly, a little scary. "Don't worry about him, Sirius. He's just a git," Peter said.

"Yeah, he went way too far, talking about your family like that. I would be furious too," Lily said.

"You think I'm mad about him talking about my family?" Sirius turned to look at them, unable to believe his ears. He laughed hollowly. "He can talk about them all he wants. It's talking _to_ them that makes me angry." He was met by blank stares. "Don't you see?_ Our families communicate quite often," _Sirius said, imitating Snape with a girly, high-pitched voice. "Mum's obviously trying to do something about me, and I'm sure Snivellus offered graciously. Spying on me, I'm sure. Mum'll be glad to hear I'm not doing well away from home or something," Sirius sounded very bitter now. "Snivellus has really got it coming to him now. He wants secrets? I'll give him secrets," Sirius said, looking moody and dark now. Everyone else was unconcerned—Sirius was off on one of his revenge stories again, and people tended to ignore him when he did this. His friends did anyways. Lily was not accustomed to them, and was listening to him with curiosity. Secrets? What secrets could he possibly have? Sirius propped his head up with his arm and stared out the window, thinking hard. He sat like that a very long time before his eyes lit up and he turned back to Remus. He had an eerie smile playing about his face.

"Queen to E7," Sirius said.

"What? Ah, no! Sirius! I didn't know you were still interested in playing! Ugh, look at what you've done," Remus muttered, looking at the game in disdain. It looked like Remus was not winning anymore. "Curse you!"

"You should know by now, dear friend, that I never lose."

xxx

Lily met up with her friends outside of the train. _She couldn't help but over hear several people already gossiping wildly as she passed by. School hasn't even started, and people are already talking about things. How totally immature_! Lily thought. She saw Diana and Sarah motioning for Lily to come over as they stood by a carriage, trying to save it for them.

"Hey, girls," Lily said, smiling. It was good to be back at school again.

"Hey Lily. Samantha and her friends saved us some room in their carriage," said Sarah, climbing in and sitting down next to Violet. Samantha was sitting next to her boyfriend, Sidharth Patil.

"Honestly, Sam, I don't understand why you always drag me off to hang out with your little girlfriends! I just wanted to go with my friends, is that so much to ask for?"

The carriage began trotting along, and Samantha total Sid to shut up. She turned to look at Lily and gave her a saccharine smile. "So, Lily, how was your summer?"

"Mine? Oh, alright I suppose," she said. She was not going to answer any other way—how would one respond to "Oh it was absolutely horrible," or "Well, I did spend my summer at someone's house, who, before now was almost a complete stranger!" No, that story would be saved for Diana and Sarah only.

"I heard you spent the whole summer at James Potter's house," Samantha said.

Well, never mind about telling only Diana and Sarah. Looks like Sam already knew. "Er, yeah. My sister and I got into a row. I sort of left, and it was just a bit of coincidence that I met James along the way."

Samantha giggled. "You don't have to act like nothing's going on, Lily! I totally understand. I mean, you spent like, forever in the same house with James Potter, and I can tell you fancy him—"

"What!? What is this rubbish? I do not fancy James Potter! He's just a friend," Lily huffed.

"Are you saying that you stayed the summer at James's house? Bloody Hell, there must have been a lot of shagging!" Sid said, smirking.

"W-what?! No, I did not…_shag _James!" Lily sputtered.

"Right, Lily. You know, I heard it Sam, who heard it from Wendy, who heard it from Leigh, who heard it from Janice, who heard it from Sona, who says she heard from you. So, it must be accurate," said Violet.

"Yeah, and my sister does not get her facts wrong," said Sid, defensively. "Wow, I can't believe you're not a virgin, Lily…what a shocker!"

"I...I am too a virgin!"

Sarah and Diana were smirking profoundly, and seemed to be enjoying watching Lily struggle for words. "Please, don't tell me the entire school knows that I stayed at James's place, and they think I shagged him?" Lily moaned.

"Well, Lils, I'll be glad to inform you that not everyone thinks you shagged James. That was just Sid's mind jumping to dirty thoughts," Sarah said.

"But everyone does know you stayed with him…and I reckon they assume you fancy him. Go dig you grave now, I think," said Diana.

"Ugh."

xxx

Sirius stepped out of the carriage, and pulled James along with him. He walked up faster, and got in front of Snape by walking around him, through groups of people. "Sirius, let go of my arm. You know, you're acting odd tonight," he said.

"Right…you know what's happening in three weeks, don't you?" Sirius said, louder than the whisper he was usually supposed to use. "The moon, right?"

"Shut up, Sirius! Mother of pearl…" James said, looking like he was going to have a stroke.

"Yeah…at the Whomping Willow, we're meeting at 12, right?" Sirius said, keeping his tone the same: Low, but loud enough to hear.

"_Yes, as always, now will you shut up_!" James hissed, blazing.

"All right, no problem," Sirius said, smirking. He glanced quickly behind him, and was satisfied to see that Snape was looking intently at the ground, a slightly tilted ear, and obviously eavesdropping.

A/N: Look, another another's note! Okay, well, plenty of wheels have been sent into motion in this chapter. What an eventful year this will be. I hope you enjoy it. Review, Review, REVIEW!


	16. Mishaps and Mayhem

Disclaimer: I have no more witty ways to say I don't own Harry Potter. So I…yeah, I don't own it.

The Wind Through My Hair 

Lily woke up bright and early the next morning and showered, making sure to brush her hair and make it look nice. It was her last first day of school, after all, and she did want to look presentable. She had come to a decision that if she was Head Girl, she was going to enjoy it, and no one was going to ruin it for her. Lily pulled the covers off of Diana, Sarah, and Alice.

"Wake up, Rise and Shine!" she said clearly, and cheerily.

"Who are _you_, Miss Happy-Arse?" Diana Grumbled. She was not her best in the mornings.

"Who are you? Miss Stick-in-the-Arse?" Lily said. She still maintained the cheery tone.

"Ugh, okay, okay, we're getting up Lily. You can lower your voice now…" said Alice.

"Yeah, Lils, you're practically screaming in my ear," said Sarah. They were all stirring now, and plopping out of bed.

"Well, sorry for screaming in your ear. I'm going down for breakfast. As Head Girl, I've got to set an example to the rest of us Gryffindors about behaving properly and being punctual!" Lily smiled and strolled out. "Oh, and don't call me Lils, Sarah," Lily said, as she patted her on the head.

"Whatever," Diana could be heard muttering loudly.

xxx

The three other girls came into the hall in a much better mood, as they had fully awoken. Diana seemed less waspish, Sarah grinning like she always was, and Alice, her round thoughtful face looking serene and content. They took their seats next to Lily, except for Alice, for she went and sat near her boyfriend, Frank.

"McGonagall has given me my schedule. You ought to go ask her for yours," said Lily, after she finished her bite of egg and picked up her timetable to look it over in order to see her classes for the year. The scraping of chairs could be heard of as the two of them got up to ask for their own time tables.

"Advanced Charms, Advanced Potions, Advanced Transfiguration…well, I've got those three, that's good. Hope I can manage them…hm, also have got History of Magic, Arithmancy, Advanced Care of Magical Creatures, and…"

"Dear God, Lily, you've got the Golden three, in Advanced courses?!" said Sarah. The 'golden three' was what everyone called Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration. They were considered the three most basic, as well as hardest, and most necessary of them all. Lily had managed to get advanced courses in all three, as she hoped to be a healer when she was older.

"Well, Charms was hardly what I'd called difficult to maintain, and Potions is easy enough. I barely managed to scrape what was required for Transfiguration. I just hope I can deal with it…I hear the advanced course is a death wish…"

"You can bet its death wish. I didn't even_ try _to get into advanced. With McGonagall as a teacher, you'd better be ready to work your bloody arse off," Sarah commented.

At that moment, the doors of the great hall opened with force, and Sirius Black strolled through looking very peeved. James was following behind him, and they were both walking very briskly. James looked enraged, but Sirius simply looked a teakettle barely controlling the boiling water within.

"I dunno _what _your problem has been lately, Sirius, but whatever it is, you had better tell me or stop acting like a bloody berk!" James snarled. Sirius chose a spot at the table a considerable distance from Lily, Diana, and Sarah.  By now, the few students that were in the Great Hall this early in the morning, had looked up from whatever they were doing to watch the rare, serious fight between the two friends.

"There's _nothing_ wrong, and YOU had better stop asking me!"

"You were _way _out of line this morning, and I don't think Moony really appreciated your choice of words either! No one in this entire world, unless they're bloody blind, would believe 'Nothing is wrong!'" James said, as he sat down on the table, and grabbed a goblet, poured a glass a pumpkin juice, and slammed the pitcher back down.

James was snapped out of his rage when the sound of the slamming pitcher sounded louder than it should have. He looked around the near-empty hall and saw no one was talking. He glared at them and said, "What are you lot looking at?" James gave Sirius a look and got up to sit elsewhere. "See you in class." It was rather lucky that they had fought so early in the morning- not many people to witness it. The teachers had raised eyebrows, and Professor Dumbledore had a cautionary hand on McGonagall's shoulder to stop her from ending the fight, for some reason. He had that ridiculous twinkle in his eye. 

James took a deep breath and slipped in next to Lily, across from Diana and Sarah. "Hello, girls." He smiled charmingly, not a trace of the previous anger in his tone or face. He ran a hand through his hair, still slightly agitated (though the girls didn't know he did that when he was), and got a plate, ready to pile on his breakfast.

"I'm starved," he said, shoveling food down his throat. The girls were all very surprised. He didn't seem upset at all anymore, and was acting like he always did.

"Er. Are you all right, James?" Diana asked. Maybe he was bipolar?

"Are you bipolar?" Sarah blurted out. Diana shoved her elbow in her stomach, and hissed, "Shut up!"

"What?" James lifted his head from his plate, a piece of egg dangling from his mouth. "I'm not bipolar…Oh, you got your schedules?" James promptly ignored the possible route of conversation that would lead to 'what was your fight about?' and headed for McGonagall to get his timetable. After receiving it and glancing over it carelessly, he threw it on the table and began to eat again. Lily picked it up and her jaw dropped.

"Advanced Transfiguration, Advanced Charms, Advanced Potions, Advanced Care of Magical Creatures, Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts…" her voice began to falter as her eyes moved down the list. "My god…you've got all advanced courses! How did you manage it, and how, more importantly, do you expect to keep all these up?" Lily asked.

"What? It's no big deal, right?" James asked, looking perplexed. "They're only the minimum requirement for being an Auror, and it hasn't been so hard before. Can't see why I can't manage it now. I suppose I'll have to start reading now, though…"

"That's ridiculous. Wait…what do you mean _start _reading?" Lily asked.

"Well…I've never really read the books for the classes. So…what I mean is, I guess I'll have to start."

"WHAT?! You don't even listen in class…how did you _not _read the book passages?" Lily said.

"Ah, my little Lily, I do indeed listen in class. You just don't know it," James said, winking, and getting up from his breakfast. "Well, off to class now! Look's like we've got Advanced Potions together, first thing this morning, Lily-kins. See you!" He left the girls in momentary shock. He hid his frustration so well; it was most disturbing to see the immediate change in his mood.

xxx

Sirius and James seemed to have made up by midday, or rather, they had decided to pretend nothing had gone wrong and they were still great pals. The truth was, though, that James simply could not forget that fight. It was most unlike Sirius to act that way. He had been acting very weird that morning. It had all ended in Sirius shouting that he was the only one who had real problems, and no one could possibly understand it. Remus, to say the least, was very upset—had Sirius just claimed to be the only one with problems? James, as well, was angry with Sirius. He didn't honestly believe they didn't understand his difficulties? Even Peter, who rarely shared any of his real conflicts with them, was mad at Sirius. But they all pushed it aside, as always, and pretended nothing was wrong.

The entire school had heard variations of the fight that had occurred between them in the Great Hall, and soon, people were asking if James had hexed Sirius and turned him into a red turtle. This went on for about a week, until Sirius got very angry, and blew up on a timid third year passing by, after Douglass started teasing him. No one talked about it around them, after that.

Sirius and James met up in front of Professor Marvin's classroom for their third Advanced Double Potions class. It was their third week into school, and James found that he did actually have to try hard this year. It was more difficult than he had anticipated. James leaned against the doorframe, reading the passage in the book that was he was supposed to for homework. He had been busy the night before working on Charms (which he had always had trouble with), and neglected this work. Sirius was talking to him, but he was barely hearing a word.

"ARGH!" Sirius yelled. "Watch where you're going, Snape!"

"What? YOU bumped into ME, imbecile," Snape snarled.

"Did you call me an imbecile? I'm impressed. Big words, as always," Sirius said. James rolled is eyes.

"You had better be careful," Snape said. Sirius's eyes darted down momentarily to Snapes chest where his silver Head Boy badge glinted in the light.

"You think I'm afrai—" Sirius said but was cut off by the sharp click of heels on the stone dungeon floor. Professor Marvin, an extremely old teacher with a head full of graying hairs and a face as wrinkly as a bulldog, strode past them and put the key in the lock. "Today, we will….urgh….be working with…agh, stupid key…" Professor Marvin said, as she struggled with the lock. The key didn't seem to fit, and she could not pull it out. Professor Marvin was rather strict, but was very clumsy and forgetful too.

"Alohamora," said Lily, standing next to the professor, and smiling kindly. "There you go, Professor."

"I could've gotten it myself, Lilac, I'm a quite capable witch, but thanks all the same," she said. Her voice sounded remarkably like a toad croaking, and it seemed to match well with her overlapping wrinkles and the permanent scowl on her face.

"Er…it's Lily, and your welcome," Lily said.

"Yes, yes, whatever, Lila."

Sirius was giving Snape very dark looks as he walked ahead of him. Snape was sending him equally angry glares. They were both walking very slow, and everyone else had moved ahead—Sirius was walking slow on purpose.

"James. Don't forget, tonight, at midnight. The _Whomping Willow._" Sirius was whispering, but it was loud and audible to Snape. He made sure to enunciate the words "Whomping Willow." Sirius pretended to catch Snape looking at him curiously out of the corner of his eye and tried to look startled. He turned around quickly. James turned to see what he had glanced at, and almost had baby cows.

"Are you absolutely insane? Shut up, you moron! Are you trying to get us in trouble?" Sirius smiled inwardly. If Snape caught what James was saying, then he would surely want to go. After all, James was sincerely worried that Snape would go to the Whomping Willow. "Ugh, I don't know what is up with you, but try to keep your voice down." They took their seats in class.

xxx

Lily folded her arms and looked the other way while Snape strode alongside her. He kept glancing at his watch and acting impatient.

"Is something the matter?" Lily asked.

"No. Why?" Snape said.

"Because. You keep glancing at your watch and looking out the window for things."

"I'm not. You're imagining things."

"No, I'm not. You are."

"Well. I've got to go," he said, glancing at his watch once more and walking briskly, almost running, toward the large doors out of the castle.

"What? Where are you going?" Lily asked. Their rounds ended at 12, and it was 11:50. "We can't go in yet, til' 12! AND you're going the wrong way! Where are you going?!" Lily shrieked. Was he sneaking out? Was he going to get them in trouble? She ran after him, panicky and curious at the same time. She got outside to feel the cool fall air against her, and almost forgot she was there to stop Snape from leaving. It was after hours, and they were supposed to check in with their heads of House before going to bed. Lily sighed, knowing there was trouble ahead of her. But, even though she had a sense of dread falling on her, she couldn't help feel comforted at the same time. Being outside felt very nice and relaxed her.

"Stop!" She yelled.

"Why are you following me?!" he yelled, turning his head a few degrees, but continued running.

"Just, stop! We're not supposed to be out here!"

"Go away!" he said, stopping at the Whomping Willow in front of the school, and breathing heavily. Lily stopped next to him, short of breath.

"What are you doing? The Whomping Willow is not a place to be hanging out after hours—it's totally dangerous and—" Lily stopped though, and squinted, hoping her eyes were deceiving her. The tree was not dangerous at all, but standing totally still. The whip-like branches and sharp thorns adorning it were hanging, completely still and harmless.

xxx

Sirius stumbled out of bed as quietly as possible. James was still asleep, as it was only 11:15. He was leaving early tonight, without James, in order to trick Snape on his own. James would not be happy with him if he knew what his plan was. Usually, one of them was assigned the task to wake up (they usually alternated) at 1:00, and then wake up the rest of them. They all went to bed extremely early that night in order to catch enough sleep. However, Sirius had different plans that night. Hopefully, Snape would show up and fall for that horribly planned scheme.

He tip-toed out of the room, and opened and shut the door with as much sneakiness as he could muster. The door closed with a small _Click! _and he stopped outside the door with his ear pressed against it, to make sure he could still hear their snores. _I've forgotten the Invisibility Cloak! _Sirius thought to himself. He swore under his breath, and opened the door again, very quietly, and tip-toed in, more in a rush this time. He opened James's trunk after a simple _Alohamora_, and tried to rifle through his belongings. Finally, at the end of his search, Sirius found the cloak shoved carelessly at the very bottom. He pulled it up happily, but found the edge was stuck on another object.

"Urgh!" he said accidentally, while trying to pull the invisibility cloak out, in vain. Peter rolled over in his sleep. He paused for a moment to make sure his friends was still sleeping, and pulled even harder. The cloak came loose, but Sirius was sent sprawling backwards on the ground. He landed on top of several books and a few pairs of dirty underwear. "Agh!" he yelled out loud, when the corner of a book rammed into his bottom. James turned over on his back, and Sirius held his breath, despite the fact that he was throbbing in pain. James slowly got up from bed and rubbed his eyes, yawning.

"Sirius, is that you? It's not time to get up yet, is it?" Sirius held his breath, and debated what to do. He then jumped up and ran out the room as fast as possible.

Sirius ran down the stairs and out of the common room, completely deserting his need for the Invisibility cloak. He would just transform in a very dark area—behind a bush or something like that. He changed into the large black dog, and ran over to the Whomping Willow. Last time he had checked the time, it was 11:40, so he still had time to get the tree to stop attacking, and make the entrance to the shrieking shack easily accessible. He took a deep breath before darting toward the tree. The branches immediately began swaying violently, and lashed out toward Sirius. But, he was dodging pretty well. A large, heavy branch with fresh green thorns came lunging towards him. He looked to see if he could jump the other way, but found another, but smaller, branch coming toward him as well. He ran towards the smaller one and jumped over it, but the large branch was still coming at him at full speed. Sirius ran toward it, ready to jump over it, but it was too far off the ground. He ended up stepping on it, and stumbling along it, before tripping over a sharp thorn, tumbling off roughly, and landing limply, where tree stumps bruised his back. Immediately, the tree stopped moving, and Sirius used his last ounces of energy to transform back into a human. Then he lay there unconscious.

xxx

James saw the person, who he was sure was Sirius, scramble up from the ground and dash out the door. James started and reached out to try and stop him, but it was too late. He got up himself, and ran to turn on the lights.

"Hey…hey, Peter, wake up!" James said. Peter rolled over and slowly blinked open his eyes, which were still crusty with sleep.

"What izit?" Peter slurred. "S'not time to get up yet, izit?"

"No, no, it's not. But Sirius isn't in his bed, and I think he tried to take my Invisibility Cloak, and he's been acting very strange, don't you think? And, he's left before all of us can go to the Whomping Willow with Moony," James rambled, spotting his Invisibility Cloak hanging out of his trunk. "Do you know where he's gone off to?"

"Sorry, James, I don't have a clue. But, we could check the Marauder's Map!"

"Good Idea, Pete," said James. He dug through his now disorganized trunk and found the map shoved between a few books. He opened it up to its full view of Hogwarts, and scanned over a few floating dots labeled "Argus Filch," "Minerva McGonagall," and "Oedipus Blanch."

He then spotted a rapidly moving dot, which was Sirius. "Let's go, Pete!" said James, as she threw the Map carelessly on top of the junk in his trunk and moved out.

"Wait, don't forget the map, James!" said Peter, as he snatched up the map and moved after James as quickly as possible. Peter looked at the map as he blindly followed James. It was very puzzling…Sirius seemed to be running around in circles around the Whomping Willow. He looked down and saw him and James running toward him, and, strangely enough, when his eyes moved back outside of the castle, he saw two other dots—Snape and Lily. "Hey…James," Peter started, but bumped into the back of James, who had stopped walking. "Hey, why'd you stop—"

"Do you hear someone?" James said, his head in that same position with his ear perked slightly. Peter listened closely too, and soon heard the menacing, low growl of a voice.

"Well, well, my kitten, it seems we've heard something, haven't we? We'll find those trouble-making kids, won't we, my sweet…" Filch said to himself. Both James and Peter swore under their breath. James looked over his shoulder at Peter, hoping it wasn't true, then his eyes widened. "You brought the map with you!?" he hissed. "I thought I left it in the dorm!"

"You did, but I thought we'd need it!" Peter said.

"Well…don't be a git! Hurry, clear it!" James said.

"Oh…right…er…uhm…"Peter strained to think on how to clear it. He was so nervous, all he could think was a jumble of words.

"Mischief managed, moron!" said James.

"Oh, right! Er, Mischief managed!" Peter hurried to say, just as Filch rounded the corner. He looked triumphant, but had a suspicious look on his face.

"What was that you were just doing with your wand, boy?" he snarled.

"N-nothing, sir."

"Right, I've heard that one before. All you filthy, trouble-making kids say that, when I can always see your mess right in front of me eyes. What's that you've got in your hand, then?" he said, spotting the map in Peter's hands. He had glimpsed him doing the clearing spell to the map, and suspected it must be something other than parchment.

"Just spare bit of parchment, sir," James jumped in.

"Give it to me," Filch said.

"No!" Peter squeaked, just a little too soon.

"No? Well, then, what's so special about this parchment?"

"Nothing, sir!" said Peter.

"Give it to me then!" Said Filch, as he walked toward Peter and snatched the map out of his hands. James could be heard slapping his forehead in frustration. "I'll be keeping this…follow me to my office. After hours, you are, and I'll be damned if I let you off…"

James's eyes widened at wasting even more time with Filch and thought of a way out. He turned around and started running. "Petey, RUN!" he yelled. Peter stumbled and ran as fast as he could after James.

"WHERE IN THE BLOODY BLAZES DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!"

xxx

Lily and Snape looked at the still Whomping Willow with something between amazement and horror. It was amazing that the Whomping Willow could ever be so…tranquil. But something about the stillness of everything ignited some sort of fear. Like, it foreshadowed their doom.

"Hey!" Lily said. "There's something lying there!" She moved forward and shrieked. "Oh my gosh! It's Sirius!" she rushed forward faster, and, before she could lean down to check to see if he was okay, she slipped and fell…into the ground.

"Evans? Evans, where are you?!" Snape said. He moved forward, very cautiously, and felt the ground with his left foot. When he got to the area above Sirius's head, his foot found a hole in the ground hidden by weeds and grass.

"Oy, Snape! There's some sort of stairway in here!" Snape carefully placed his feet in, one by one, and slipped into a dark, narrow passageway. "_Lumos!" _he said.

"Shall we proceed?" They walked slowly forward in the passage that sloped downward as they moved on with the little light that their wands provided. As the moved forward, they could both hear sounds coming from further up, and it only made them more curious. A large opening could be seen, and Snape moved ahead to look in.

At first, he couldn't tell what it was. It was just flailing wildly around the room, throwing around furniture and scratching at the walls. Then, he realized, and let out a small gasp. The werewolf stopped what it was doing, and looked straight at the both of them. If there was any trace of human in this creature, you couldn't see it, not even in the eyes. For the eyes were what confirmed that it was a rabid animal—there was a hungry, desperate glint in the cool grey eyes. His teeth were bared, and you could see the blood red gums, and yellowing fangs that protruded from the mouth. The wild, dirty coat of fur seemed to be electrified with excitement because he had spotted dinner. Both Snape and Lily were frozen to their spots, and were only snapped out of their hypnotic state when the werewolf began to growl, and charged forward.

Snape shook himself, and turned to run back into the narrow passage, pushing Lily forward faster so they could both escape. Before he could get his whole body into the narrow entrance, the werewolf had his robe in his mouth, trying to pull him backwards into his lair. Snape bellowed, and tried to pull free. Lily grabbed his hand and struggled to pull him forward, but the material of his robes were not ripping. He fumbled to unclasp his robes and ripped it off his body, pushed Lily to run, and scrambled up the steps.

Lily looked up and spotted James and Peter running torward them. She waved and tried to stop them—did they know what they were walking into? "No, stop, James, it's dangerous!"

He completely ignored her and grabbed both Lily and Snape by their collars and dragged them backwards. "Moony's going to have your scent! If he's seen you, he's coming after you!" He was near hysterical and trying to drag them backwards.

"Get your hands off, my Potter, I can drag myself, thanks!" said Snape.

"Shut up! Just move!" James said. "Hurry, I can hear him!" But, Snape would not move, and only sneered at Potter.

"We're out of there now, and I can handle myself." A scuffling from behind them could be heard, and growling, as Remus tried to climb out of the hole. It was rather difficult, considering he had four paws, and he had trouble pulling himself out, but he was trying all right.

"Just move!" James said, spotting his wolf friend.

Snape, who hadn't yet heard the werewolf, refused to be ordered around by Potter. He did not know what was going on. "Oh, just shut up! _Stupify!_" Sirius grumbled, and got up.

"You idiot! Now he can't move on his own! And our little friend here is rabid and hungry!" screamed James. Sirius whipped around, startled to find Remus, the werewolf, struggling to get out and attack.

"Uh oh…Just…just…just transform or something!" screamed Sirius, realizing his plan had gone horribly awry.

"Ok, Lily, go away! Just, go back to the castle, or something, and leave this to us!" said James. He was already turning into a stag. "And take Snape with you!"

"Uh…alright!" Lily stuttered, grabbing Snape and trying to drag them. Then she realized she had a wand. Both James and Sirius had already turned into a dog and stag, and were trying to keep Remus at bay. Lily levitated Snape's unconscious body, and ran, trying not to look back.

A/N: What do you think? I hope it's long enough, and that it's good enough…it is a very important chapter after all. Sorry this one took so long. I was pretty lazy and only writing like, little by little everyday…and time flies! So before I knew it…it was like, a couple of weeks. So I finally sat down and wrote a bunch of the chapter. Please review. =D


	17. Running for Help

Disclaimer: I don't own the stuff that's copyrighted.

****

**The Wind Through My Hair**

****

Lily turned around quickly ready to run as fast as she could with Snape's useless dead weight dragging behind her. She clutched the collar of his shirt and pulled with all her might, trying her best not to break down in hysterical tears or to turn back that instant and try to help her friends.

"I just called them my _friends_," Lily muttered to herself, already tiring from the arduous task of getting her 125 lbs., plus an extra 160, to safety. She found that the castle walls were a lot farther than they had at first seemed, and when she finally arrived there, she heard a sick yell of pain from where she had left behind. "Uh oh…" she thought panicked. What if they were in trouble? "Of course they're in trouble, you great dolt…they're fighting a rabid werewolf…" The lead feeling in her stomach got worse as several different scenes of torture and struggle flashed through her mind, where the horrible yell she had heard fit in somewhere. She glanced around, even more nervous than before, and decided that they all needed some real help, not just two teenage boys. Lily seemed hesitant, but she propped Snape up against the wall near the entrance and raced inside in search of a professor. "I'll be back soon to retrieve him…shouldn't be a problem."

XXX

James saw that Lily was definitely moving away from the situation at hand with his peripheral vision, and began to transform as quickly as possible into his animagus form. Sirius could be seen doing the same, and they stood on opposite sides of Remus.

Moony, though his bite did not affect other animals, that did not mean that he was docile around them. Often times, he was in an angry rage, which his friends would have to beat out of him. A full-fledged fight might occur in order to tranquilize him. In this instance, he happened to be extremely enraged, more so than usual. This was probably because he had not gotten his prey tonight (which happened to have been Snape, if you were wondering), and had been in such close reach. _And now…now, these foul creatures who were supposedly his friends, were trying to prevent him from getting what he wanted, _he thought. The beast that had always been inside him, but roamed freely throughout him on full moons, was clouding the common sense that the real Remus almost always portrayed.

_Now, now, Moony…hehe…there's no need to be getting your temper out of hand…just stop and think about the circumstances here! _James directed his thought towards him. The only response he got was a low, threatening growl, as he got into an attack position.

_Hey, buddy ol' pal! What are you so angry about, eh? Let's just…uh, go into the forbidden forest and resume our game of hide-and-go-seek we had going like last time, _Sirius said. Moony did not move, but his growl got a bit softer, and he seemed to be getting less hostile.

_Yeah, Moon-ster! Kill a couple of innocent birds like last time! You liked that, didn't you? _Peter, in his rat formed, asked in what he thought was a soothing tone. Unfortunately for him, his word choice did not get the sort of reaction he had been hoping for. The moment he said "moon-ster," Sirius and James blanched. They thought that Remus has made it clear he did not like the pet name, when they called him that teasingly in the corridors one day, because it sounded like "Monster." Apparently, Peter hadn't heard…

The small, sane part of Remus's brain flared in anger as he heard Peter say he enjoyed killing innocent birds. He became truly angry, along with the already twitchingly mad beast part of him, and roared in fury as he ran full speed toward the small rat and prepared to pounce. As he leaped in mid-air, a large shaggy dog pushed him off course and wrestled him on the ground.

XXX

Lily staggered through the double doors and ran down the stone corridors. It was eerie at night, and even more so with Lily's active and, especially on this night, over-stimulated imagination. She had started heading for Gryffindor common room without thinking, and before she knew it, she stood before Professor McGonagall's elegant wood private quarters door. Lily tried to catch her breath, and tentatively knocked on her door. It seemed so much more intimidating now that she was actually here. But she forced her knock to sound clear and audible as she thought about the trouble her friends might be in. _I called them my friends again…_She thought, appalled.

The door creaked open, and the Professor stood there looking miffed. "Miss Evans! I was expecting you to check in long ago…I thought you might have forgotten," she said.

"No, Professor, that's not it at all…you see…well, there's this thing…and a tree…" Lily tried to make what she was trying to say sound believable, but it was just impossible. She cursed herself for not sorting out her words earlier. "And you see…I've left him on a wall…and it's just horrid! They could die!" McGonagall seemed bored an aggravated, but he eyes narrowed when she heard 'They could die!'

"What are you talking about, child?" She asked sharply.

"Well…" Lily groaned, and finally said what would explain everything yet sounded so made-up. "James and Sirius are out there…er…fighting a…_werewolf_." Even she said it questioningly, as if she couldn't believe she'd said that.

"Dear lord, my child! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" McGonagall raced out of the room without even shutting the door, in her carpet slippers and night robes with her hair in a net and walked briskly to Dumbledore's office.

When McGonagall and Dumbledore arrived at the scene, James was just punching Sirius in an angry rage, and Sirius was taking it without protest.

"YOU MORON. YOU ALMOST GOT US KILLED!" James yelled. Sirius stayed on the ground clutching his face, but otherwise trying to hide any other emotion. "Not only did WE almost just die, but you almost killed Snape AND LILY! ANNNDDD, You USED moony! I can't understand this!"

Dumbledore cleared his throat patiently. James whipped around ready to draw his wand, but his eyes widened when he realized that the headmaster had been standing right there during his every loud rant. "Mr. Potter. Mr. Black. Would you please accompany me to my office? Ms. Evans, it would be best if you came as well. Minerva. Could you perhaps fetch Mr. Snape? I believe he's leaning against a wall near the entrance."

xxx

"I do hope you realize the extremity of this situation. Would you care to explain how you managed to fight off a fully-fledged werewolf and live to tell the tale? Perhaps, how you came to ever wrestling a werewolf in the first place would be appropriate." Dumbledore asked them, with that annoying stare he always had. It was imploring and could seem to see right through you. It seemed as if he had undying patience in those soft blue eyes.

James and Sirius glanced at each other, and before Sirius could even open his mouth, James intervened. "Sirius and Snape got into a bit of a fight, and somehow it led to the Whomping Willow. Sirius and I have known about Remus's condition since first year, so we know all about the shrieking shack and such. They were fighting underneath the tree, and fell on the stump accidentally and Sirius…had to, er, pretend he didn't know what was going on. So Snape went down, being the git—I mean, being ignorant of the fact of what was down there, and didn't listen to Sirius. I…uh, was taking a nightly stroll outside and saw them as Snape came running out with Remus not far behind. And well. Lily was just. Uhm…."

"She came out looking for Snape since he was supposed to be completing Head Boy duties with her." Dumbledore finished, slightly amused.

"Erm. Yes Sir," said James.

"I see. That is all. You man leave. Please tell Mr. Snape that I'd like to see him in here now."

xxx

They strolled out and Lily was there, sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. She was sleeping, but jerked out of her reverie when she heard them talking.

"What did Dumbledore ask you guys? I wonder why he wanted us in there separately." She asked.

"Probably to hear if we all have got the same story," Sirius said. James rolled his eyes, realizing that his story was probably completely different from what Snape or Lily would say.

She got up and shrugged. "Reckon we should go to our dorms now?" She looked out the window to see that the sky was turning pink. "We've got about 3 hours before classes start. I think the sleep would do us good."

"I don't think three hours of measly sleep will do us any good. We might as well just stay up," James said. Sirius, however, yawned loudly.

"I'm tired…"

"And who's bloody fault is that?" James asked irrated.

"So, I'm going to sleep," Sirius said even louder, pretending to ignore what James ahd said. "Come to the dorm whenever you please."

"Right, just go already," James spat. Sirius rolled his eyes and mumbled about how he was going. As he turned the corner, James looked at Lily, and smiled exhaustedly. "Care for a bit of ice cream from the Kitchens?"

She thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure."

They walked to the kitchen in silence and when they go there, were immediately bombarded with eager house-elves. "What can Yodel do for mister and miss? Would mister and miss care for a cup of tea? Or food? Or would mister and miss like something else? Yodel is at mister and miss's service!"

"Er. Just a chocolate ice cream and…er…" James said.

"And a Strawberry." Lily added. Two bowls of ice cream came out almost immediately, and they sat down at a table to eat, once again in silence. They each seemed absorbed in their thoughts.

"James?"

"Yeah, Lils?"

"I'm glad you're okay from that fight with that werewolf…" She mumbled. James raised his eyebrows, and Lily realized what she had just said sounded incredibly sentimental and caring.

"Well, what I meant was that…you were…it was very. Well, you _are _a Gryffindor, so of course you were brave, but I mean, that was incredibly great what you did—but, I'm not just saying that or anything, I mean, it was really really great…" Lily took a deep breath and got up. "I think it's time we head back." James shrugged and got up, ready to leave.

They walked back in silence, again until Lily spoke up as they walked across the common room. "You see, what I meant to say is that, I think you were very brave out there…and…and…thanks for saving my arse out there." She grinned, as they stopped in front of the staircases to their dorms.

James was shocked, and, in spite of himself, he smiled as well. "No problem."

Lily laughed and found she was leaning toward him and pecking him lightly on the cheek. She blushed slightly, waved awkwardly and walked up the stairs as casually-fast as possible. James still felt the spot where she had kissed him on the cheek still burning, even as he walked up the staircase, dumbfounded five minutes later.

A/N: OMG. I am SO sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I didn't update like, at all over the summer. I'm sorry! I was either too lazy, way too busy (I hate school!), or just didn't have any inspiration in me. You know how that is. I didn't have that writing urge in me. But tonight I finally got to finish writing this incredibly slow chapter. I hope it's not TOO boring or dragging. I'm sorry if you think it is, but I can't help myself. Please review and tell me what you think. :D Yeah…and if there are grammar or spelling mistakes, just disregard them. I was far too lazy to fix them, and I was eager to get this chapter up for your benefit.

P.S. And thanks bunches and oodles to all my reviewers! I love you all! I appreciate you all too, so don't think I don't!


	18. Awkward?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that's copyrighted.

Author's note: It's cold outside and it's November…I'm strongly reminded of Christmas, and Christmas reminds me of Fan fiction, which I realized I hadn't written in a while. Sudden burst of inspiration to write, so here I am. Please accept my many apologies for the long wait. I think I may begin writing another fan fic (vote, yes or no in your review?)…It's the weather, I swear.

The Wind Through My Hair 

****

The next day was an absolute uproar. The whole Gryffindor house was bombarding Lily, James, and Sirius with questions about what had really happened—how anyone even knew _anything _had happened still remains a mystery. The word spread like wildfire, and soon, the whole of Hogwarts was being friendly.

"So, Lily, how did you manage to fight off the Whomping Willow, single-handedly?" Gregory Flinch-Fletchy asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering that, too!" Francois said. Lily sighed and put her head in her hands, resisting the urge to roll her eyes and say something incredibly rude.

"Well, you know, I just took out my handy-dandy Whomping Willow-killer, and slashed it right up into bits," she said. There was silence, as everyone didn't quite get the joke and were puzzled at her sarcasm. She rolled her eyes and walked up faster down the halls, and said goodbye in an extremely sugary tone.

"Christ, what rat climbed up her ass and died?"

xxx

"No, I'm not avoiding her! Does THE Prongs _ever _avoid a girl? I, sir, am a hot piece of man-arse," James said. Sirius only looked at him with a pitying look and shook his head, looking to the heavens as if they would provide any guidance to the most sinful 17-year-old on earth. "What, you don't believe me? Seriously, why would _I_ be avoiding _Lily Evans?_ She's as harmless as a hamster."

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you seeing her in the halls, making that weird screech, taking my hand and dragging us the opposite direction of our class was some indication. Or maybe you deliberately looking away and pretending to talk to me when we pass her. Or maybe you turning that horrible ruddy shade, like you are right now, whenever—"

"Alright, I get it, you dolt! God, okay, I'm avoiding her," James said, rolling his eyes and then frowning slightly. He took a small mirror out of his robes pocket and checked his face. "It is _not_ a horrible ruddy shade!"

"Well, it _was_ a second ago. But that's besides the point; the point is, _why are you avoiding her_?" Sirius sing-sang.

"I'm not!" James said defensively, but then realized he had already admitted otherwise. "Alright, it's because…I don't want things to be…er…awkward."

"Awkward? Why would things be awkward? She's the same as always. Unless you raped her or something, I can understand it being awkward _then_," Sirius said.

"It might as well have been rape! Sirius, oh god…I…I…"

"HOLY—DEAR…OMIGOD. Prongs, _you raped_ her?! Oh, god, what did you do to her?"

"She…kissed me on the cheek!" James exclaimed ashamed, as his head fell. Sirius's mouth stayed in its open position as his rant stopped and he looked at James with a look of shock. His face slowly changed to puzzlement, and he closed his jaw to out-right scowl. "Kissed you on the _cheek?_"

"Yes. I know. Things will be so awkward now. It was so weird. She just…pecked me right on my check and then…well, said good-night!"

"Prongs, you arse-hole, that's hardly weird. On the cheek…I swear, your own mother kisses you on the cheek! You shouldn't be nervous because of a kiss on the cheek. Great dolt!"

"Well, yes, I know, but…it was just different with Lily—"

"But nothing. You will talk to her by the end of the day, and when things aren't awkward and are totally normal, since a kiss on the cheek is something you do when you're three years old, you will realize what an idiot you're being. You act like you haven't been past second base before," Sirius said.

"You're right, Sirius. Nothing's changed. It was just a little kiss on the check…I'm being stupid."

xxx

"You're being stupid, Lily," Diana said.

"I am not! You would be acting like me too, if you had done what I had done," Lily said. They continued to walk down the crowded corridors, trying to dodge the whispers that seemed to follow her everywhere.

"Done what you did? _Lils_, it really _wasn't_ a big deal. You act like giving someone a peck on the cheek is more wild than almost dying while being chased by an insanely angry tree." Lily only glared at her friend and looked to Sarah for support.

"Hey, don't look at me like that…I'd expect you'd know me well enough by now to know that I'll only laugh at you," Sarah said, smirking. Lily rolled her eyes. As she walked and looked at Sarah, she bumped into someone, and both of their books fell to the floor in a huge mess. Her folder split open and papers flew every which way.

"Oh just great! You guys go on into class and tell Professor Flitwick I'll be right in! We're right outside anyways, I won't be too late…" Lily said, leaning down right away to gather her books and papers in a hurry.

"Oh, _wonderful_!…Sirius? SIRIUS. Some friend you are! _Fine_, just go on without me then!" James said, plus several obscene words as he got down on his knees without looking up to grab up the very few books her ever brought to class. Their heads bumped and several more obscene words were yelled.

"GOOD GOD."

"Ouch, that smarts." They said at once. Lily looked up and raised her eyebrows. "Oh. Hi James." She smiled tentatively.

"Er…Hi Lily…sorry about...um." He swept his hand across the messy scene between them.

"Oh, no! I wasn't looking at where I was heading, it was my fault as well." Lily said, blushing slightly for reasons she didn't know why. James shrugged and smiled, slash, grimaced at the fact that she was trying to take the blame (something she never did in the presence of James) and at the fact that it was _awkward_ and an _awkward_ silence had fallen on them.

"Ah…well. We should go off to class now, I guess," Lily said, picking up her books.

"Wait. Lily." James said, after closing his eyes and making a resolute decision. Lily stopped mid-step and looked at him questioningly. "Yes, James?"

"Would you…like to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend? I mean, I understand if you don't, but I thought it might be nice, and well, you know, you've had a hard time lately, so maybe if you came—" James rambled on. Lily giggled slightly at how discombobulated he appeared, and shook her head.

"James, I would love to go, but there _is_ no Hogsmeade visit next weekend. Are you mental? It's not for another month or so," Lily said.

It was James turn to smiled and shake his head. He simply sighed and looked at her in his trademark James-face. "Lily…Lils…Lil-ster. I promise you, there _is _a Hogsmeade visit next weekend. Don't worry about what the school schedule says! James Potter _knows _there's a Hogsmeade visit next weekend, no matter what. So, I'll meet you in the common room at 7 on Friday night," James said. He winked at her and walked leisurely into Charms class. And just like that, all his formal mannerisms had vanished and he became just as he had before—charming, witty, slightly mysterious, and a tad rude if you know what I mean.

Lily followed him a few minutes later late into Charms class and sat down next to Diana without getting chided by Professor Flitwick; she was his favorite student after all. Diana didn't seem to notice, as she was taking copious amount of notes, but Lily did not pay attention the whole class. Her mind was on other things, of course.

xxx

A/N: Hope you like! I couldn't have Lily and James go nowhere forever, now could I? Finally, the romance moves onward! Sorry for such long delays on my chapters…I'm having a bit of writer's block, and inspiration is nowhere! I do have a whole new elaborate plot for a whole new J/L story, but I refuse to start a new one until this one is finished. Since this one isn't very done yet, I'll have time to stew on that new story. wink wink Oh, yeah….REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! )


	19. The New Head in Town

A/N: okay, yay! I hope the length of this chapter is more agreeable to you all. And thanks to everyone that reviewed! )

The Wind Through My Hair 

The bell rang, signaling for lunch, and James ran after Lily.

"Hey…hey, oy, Lils!" James shouted over the crowd. She stopped and turned around.

"Yes, Potter?" she said.

"About next weekend. Is Friday all right with you? At 7? I'll take you to dinner, so, you won't have to worry about eating in the Great Hall," James said. Several girls walked by, looked at him and giggled silently, as if he couldn't hear them. He pretended he hadn't anyway (he was quite good at ignoring those things), and waited for Lily to respond.

"Er…that's fine I guess," she said, uncomfortably. It was really very weird to be asked out by someone you used to sort-of-hate. He nodded, satisfied with her answer, and walked off to lunch.

He waltzed in with a bit of arrogance to his stride and took his usual seat next to Sirius, who had already scarfed down 3 sandwiches, and was draining his glass of water. He looked up when James took his seat, and went back to his food. However, his head snapped back up, and he studied James with a suspicious look on his face. James gave Sirius a "Why-am-I-being-stared-at-by-an-insane-person look" and Sirius's suspicious face broke into a grin.

"You! Okay, _who _did you ask out?" Sirius asked.

"_What? _That's crazy, I didn't say anything about asking anyone out," James said.

"Hah, tell me, or I'll spread an_, ahem_, 'rumor' about you going on a date with your cousin to the Yuletide Ball that the Longbottoms' invited your family to 5 years ago," Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows to suggest he was dead serious/Sirius.

"Agh! Oh, god, Black, you wouldn't!" James said. Sirius simply did not say anything and let his looks do the talking.

"Aright, I asked Lil—"

"AH-HA! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT KNEW IT KNEW IT!" Sirius shouted, unable to control his excitement. More than a few people were looking in their direction, and some girls could be heard whispering conspiratorially. James sighed exasperated and rolled his eyes. "You git, I don't know why I tell you these things…I'm going to go…to the dorm now," he said. Sirius chuckled.

"Going to check up on what you're going to wear and plan what you'll say, hm? I know you too well, Prongsie!" Sirius sang tauntingly.

Remus walked into the hall at that moment, but no one seemed to notice. Remus' named mysteriously disappeared from the story, and no one outside the people present at the night's events knew that he had anything to do with anything. However, Sirius' playful natured dissipated almost immediately as he spotted his friend. Things were quite tense between them. Sirius still felt as if his rash actions were justified, and Remus was indignant that Sirius had used him as part of a ploy to get back at Snape. Things were not as bad between James and Sirius. It was a little strange, but they both tried to keep things normal. Sirius and Remus, however, were not on good terms at all. James saw trouble right away, and got up to avoid any spats between them.

"Shut it!" James said in response to Sirius' last comment, preparing to get up and leave. Before he could leave though, he saw Professor McGonagall heading his way, so he tried to make a quick getaway in case he was in any trouble. No such luck, though.

"Mister Potter!" Her voice rang. James closed his eyes in ashamed failure of inability to escape the professor's wrath, and quickly formed his face into a pleasant smile before turning to face her.

"Why, hello, Professor McGonagall! What a pleasure to see you. Why, I was just now thinking about your riveting class and what I ought to write for that awfully interesting essay topic you assigned us just yesterday!" James flashed her a bright grin and tried to look genuinely happy to see her. He was, however, unable to detain the sarcastic tinge in his voice.

"Save your wheedling for later. I've just been told that I am to deliver you to Professor Dumbledore's office. He has something to discuss with you of great importance," she said.

"Wheedling…what the heck is that? Wait—Professor Dumbledore's office? But what have I done? Whatever it was, I _swear_ it wasn't me!" James said, moving immediately to the claim of innocence.

"Oh, hush, Potter. You'll find out when you arrive there. Now, follow me. Though, I'm sure you are quite familiarized with the direction to his office, practically having a personal seat there, but I'm to lead you anyway," she said briskly, and turned heel.

James was so completely confused, and was still running a list through his mind of possible reasons as to why he would be going back to Dumbledore's office so soon. The walk went by quickly, as James didn't even have to look at McGonagall to find Dumbledore's office, and before he knew it, they were in front of the stone gargoyle.

"Blood Lollipops," She said, and the gargoyle sprang to life, revealing an elaborate spiral stone staircase.

They walked up and McGonagall knocked on the door before entering and greeting Professor Dumbledore, who was sitting serenely at his desk and peering into a peculiar, sparkling crystal with interest. He looked up, and smiled kindly at them both, motioning for them to take a seat.

"I suppose you are wondering why you are here, James, so I will tell you now, that you're not in any trouble…not any that I will address here," Dumbledore said, with a laughing twinkle in his eye. "No, the reason that I called you here is because we no longer have a head boy. His parents were a tad angry when hearing about Serverus's incident, and came to take him home. So. The position is open, if you'd like it," Dumbledore said.

James looked at him, a bit in shock. "Snape's parents took him away? What school will he go to now? There's none better…"

"I'm pleased to know that you think so highly of our educational establishment. However, there are other schools, and many different opinions. I cannot say for sure, but I do believe Severus will be attending Durmstrang, or something of the sort. Ah, excuse me; I'm trailing off the topic. What was I saying? Oh, yes, Head Boy. You were my next choice, Mister Potter, and it would be very appropriate if you took up Severus's Head Boy duties in his place," he said.

James raised his eyebrows. "Do I really have a choice in the matter?"

"Why, of course, Mister Potter. One _always_ has a choice…" Dumbledore said. James looked relieved that he would be able to turn down Dumbledore on his ludicrous offer. "Your other choice is to be recognized in your unnoticed crimes of the school," he said, innocently, winking discreetly at James. James' jaw dropped and he made an indignant scowl.

"That's not a choice! That's like…like…blackmail!" Dumbledore pretended to not hear as he opened a jar and put a Lemon drop in his mouth. "Hm, I rather like this candy. Would you like one?"

"Professor Dumbledore—I..."

"The next Prefect meeting is tomorrow night, right after dinner. I expect you'll be there, no?"

James sat in sullen silence for a few seconds and nodded. "Yeah, I guess, then."

Dumbledore looked very pleased, and pulled open a drawer, handing to him a shiny silver "Head Boy" badge. "Miss Evans will be there tomorrow night, so she'll fill you in all everything that needs to be done," Dumbledore finished. James got up, assuming from the tone of his voice that their conversation was over, and his cards were done and dealt. James thought about it as he walked down the twirling staircase—how hard could ordering around a few people possibly be?

A/N: haha. Okay, well, now, James has finally become Head Boy, just as J.K. Rowling planned it so! Back when I made Snape head boy, I got several angry reviews about how "inaccurate" that was. ;D Good thing I was planning to make James head boy anyways. Gosh, don't you people have any faith in me at all? I can't just have him be head boy like he becomes it in every other L/J fic, now, can I? I hoped you enjoyed. The next chapter should be rather interesting—it will contain both James' first head boy meeting, and his date with Lily. Are you happier with my quick update? REVIEW!


	20. The Best Worst Week

A/N: okay, why am I writing this next chapter when I have an urgent exam to study for? Ah, well, if my mind isn't on math, then I won't be able to study anyways, so, here it is.

****

The Wind Through My Hair 

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" James' alarm clock sang at 7 in the morning. He turned over and opened one crusty eye to see what the bright read numbers on his clock read.

"_Seven o' clock? _Bloody hell, SHUT IT!" James yelled incoherently to himself. He slapped the clock, and it tumbled off his bedside table. He sighed, content, and turned back over to rest.

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" James' groaned and scowled. He knew there was something suspicious about the alarm clock his mother has sent him as a dormitory-warming gift. "Shut up, I said!" James yelled.

"BEEP! Your mum told me to wake you, and I will!" It screeched. "God, James, Turn that bloody thing off!" Peter mumbled. James sighed, frustrated, and got up, not forgetting to kick the clock against the wall and snarling at it. He went into the bathroom, took his routine five-minute-shower. He walked out the shower and shook his hair to dry it like a wet dog would, and picked up his school uniform off the ground, sniffed it and deemed it clean enough to wear. His school robes were hanging on the wall—those _had _to look clean…they covered up how wrinkled and dirty his actual uniform looked. He took his robes down and slipped it on; James looked in the mirror and practiced his smile, just to see if he still had it. Just as he was about to walk out the door, he turned back around, realizing that he still had the mark of a…do-gooder placed upon in chest in the form of a small shiny badge.

Scowling, he tugged at it, in attempt to take it off. Maybe no one would ever find out he was Head Boy if he just pretended he wasn't. Head Boy duties were not for people like him…they were suited to people like Remus much better. No matter how much he pulled defiantly at his badge, it would not come off, and soon, he was actually breaking a sweat trying to rip it off. He gave up and looked at the clock…it only read 7:45, and he wasn't even late. Heck, if he showed up at breakfast now, he wouldn't even be considered on time. God forbid, he would be _early. _"This badge is already turning me into a monster…" he muttered. Just to spite…well, he really didn't know who he was spiting, but just _to _spite, he sat on his bed and folded his arms, deciding not to even consider leaving the dormitory before 8:10.

Finally, James resignedly got up at 8:05, tired of sitting completely unproductively. Coincidentally, 8:05 is when Sirius fell out of bed on accident, glanced at the clock, jumped up, and ran to the bathroom while grabbing his school clothes (or, Peter's school clothes?) off the ground as he went. And at 8:06, Peter woke with a start with Sirius thumping around, and squeaked, not delaying to get out of bed as well. Remus was still in the hospital wing, having to sleep there every night until the full moon was over with. "Where is my uniform?" Peter squealed in panic just as James was walking out of the dorm for breakfast.

He strolled as leisurely as possible, and managed to get to the Great Hall in the beginning of the middle of breakfast. Not too shabby…As he walked past the Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables to get to the Gryffindor table, people casually glanced up to see who had entered. It was only James Potter, late as always…however, few people did a double take and caught sight of the shiny silver badge upon his chest and turned to tell their neighbors.

"Oi, Potter!" Lucius Malfoy called out in a not-so-nice tone of voice. James did not even flinch as he walked past, hoping to avoid talking to scum of the earth at all costs. "Nice of you to take Sevvy's spot after making him leave. Makes you seem like a real saint, doesn't it?" He sneered. James twitched slightly and continued to walk briskly until he made it to his house table. He sat down, and immediately, he saw Lily get up through his periphial vision. She sat across from him and scowled.

"Since when have you been made Head boy!" She screeched. "And what's happened to Snape? Well, not that I enjoyed him much, but honestly, how could someone like you manage a spot like that? I mean, I've worked practically seven years to become Head Girl, and you prance around the school, blowing up everything in sight, and look at you!"

James rolled his eyes, and honestly did not want to talk about it. Did she really think he chose to do this? "Anyway. About that date tomorrow night," he said, deliberately ignoring her protests of anger.

"Date? DATE! You want to talk about the date now? Potter, you have the worst timing I have ever seen!"

"I was thinking, are you dressing formally? Because, really, I was thinking casual. And the way we're going to Hogsmeade, you're bound to get a bit muddy anyhow," James said.

"What date?" Lily said, deadpan, and glared at him coldly before walking off. James' mouth fell open slightly and he stabbed at his egg violently. "Damn girls," he muttered.

xxx

The day passed uneventfully…or maybe James had not noticed anything extraordinary, because he was so preoccupied the whole day. He could not seem to think of anything but of Lily. He'd be damned if she wasn't going on any date. She was going on one, and that was that, was what James decided. He got the meeting information from a 5th year Ravenclaw prefect, Melissa Ngoc, since James refused to talk to Lily. Besides, even if he had asked her, she probably would not have told him anyways.

He entered an insignificant room on the first floor, strolling in casually. The loud voice that was talking faltered and the whole room, which was seated in an very organized manner, turned in unison to see who dared enter in on a Lily prefect meeting 5 minutes late, and so unworried at that.

"Potter," Lily growled. "_You're late._"

"Excuse me, I didn't know where the room was. No one told me, and I'm a bit timid you see. Afraid to ask," James said, making sure to wink at Lily before he walked up to the front, grabbed a seat, turned it around and sat in it backwards. "You've got my undivided attention, miss."

She rolled her eyes and turned back to the prefects. "Back to what I was saying...its up to the 5th year prefects to set up the 7th years ending feasts. I mean, I would organize it myself, but its tradition, and we all know I can't break that. Dumbledore insists. So, make sure you plan it, because if it blows, then I'll be very disappointed."

"Right. What she said. Make sure you've got music too. Last year's ending feast is exactly what every ending feast should _not_ be. You know, music makes a party and that's what we want and..."

"Shut it, Potter," Lily said.

"Why don't_ you_ shut it, for once?" James said.

"Because, I'm not as annoying as you are. That's impossible."

"Yes, but along with my annoying nature is charm and lovability." Lily tried her best to make a retort, but she couldn't help but grin a little. He was just ridiculous sometimes. "Shut up...on with the agenda..."

Lily gathered her belongings very slowly after the prefect meeting. Whether it was because she wanted to talk to Potter or because she was caught up in her thoughts is unknown. Maybe it was both. The 7th years' ending feast was occupying her mind; it brought her back to last year, when she had been on the worst date of her life with...what was his name? She couldn't even remember. She did remember that she had fainted and James had sweetly—I mean, that git had brought her back to his dorm and slept on the couch like a big idiot. _A rather nice one... _Lily couldn't help thinking as she imagined how uncomfortable it must have been for extremely tall James to sleep on the small, cramped couch.

Soon, it was only James and she in the room. She had been standing there idly for probably about 5 minutes, and James was leaning against the wall, checking out his nails and waiting for her to finish. "Are you finished yet? I don't think I can wait in silence much longer," he said, not looking up for his nails. Lily shook her head to fall out of her trance and nodded silently, forgetting that she was mad at him. James looked a bit surprised and shrugged, getting up and taking her bag and books.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked.

"Taking your books, genius," James said. Lily scowled, but didn't complain. He was being a gentleman...but being a git about it. She then remembered she was mad at him.

"I can carry my own stuff, thanks. I'm not some damsel in distress," Lily spat.

"I never said you were...I'm just trying to be nice. I don't even know _why_ you're mad at me! God, you're so moody," James said.

"I'm mad because_...because_, you're an idiot that gets whatever he wants!_ That's_ why."

"I DON'T always get what I want! You don't know anything!"

"OH YEAH? Well, tell me, one thing you haven't gotten!" Lily screamed.

"Well, I haven't gotten—" James paused to think of something he could tell her. "I haven't gotten a date with you." Lily almost looked surprised for a moment or two, but she quickly recovered and frowned.

"You're not getting one. That's one thing you won't get."

"I don't get plenty. And you ARE going on a date with me, tomorrow, at 7 after dinner! I don't care what you say!" James said. Lily scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"What makes you think you're my boss?"

"I never said that! You're always making things up! And I don't want to go on a date with you anymore, if you're going to act high-maintenance!"

"I AM NOT HIGH-MAINTENANCE!"

"You are too! I can't take you on a date without going through an entire ordeal. Why can't you just meet me after dinner in the great hall like a normal person? It's THAT simple!" James said.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that! I'm going to show you how ...un-high maintenance I am!"

"Who says I want to see!" James yelled.

"GREAT HALL, 7:00. DON'T BE LATE," Lily said.

"FINE!" James said.

"FINE!" Lily said.

"_Fine_." They both said at once, and both turning sharply on their heels to part ways.

Only that, James turned around quickly and briskly walked the direction in which Lily had gone, realizing that they were in the same house and were headed in the same direction.

xxx

The next day, Diana, Sarah, and Lily sat in the common room studying. They were usually in Arithmancy at that time, but Professor Vector had gone on a trip to Bolivia with several other renowned professors of witchcraft and wizardry to do some research on a strange concentration of mysterious dark magic in a patch of forest south of a small village. Lily was glad that the professor was gone for the week and they had a study hall with assigned work issued to them in the space of time he would be gone. She was so uptight that almost anything from math to Care of Magical Creatures could tip her scale of sanity

Diana frowned and erased a large portion of what she had written and grunted unsatisfied with the outcome of her problem. Lily glanced over at Diana's paper to see the problem and thought better of trying to help since Diana was on question nine while she was only on number 2. Not only that, but Lily had many more scratch outs than Diana did. She just couldn't concentrate and almost anything threw her off. Lily _did_ want to finish her homework so she wouldn't fail the upcoming test that Professor Vector would throw at them the moment he came back from his expedition, but it seemed impossible. And it didn't help that Sarah continually brought up irrelevant topics of conversation when Lily had finally managed to get a train of thought together. As they sat silently, immersed in their own problems before them...

"OH. MY. GOD," Sarah shrieked, trying to sound excited about what she was about to say, but not quite showing it through to her eyes. "Guess who said hi to me and asked me to sit with him for lunch tomorrow?" Diana sighed heavily and looked up with a less-than-jolly expression. Lily rolled her eyes and tried to sigh as annoyingly loud as possible to display the fact that she already knew because it was obvious, and that she really didn't care.

"The cookie monster?" Diana said sarcastically. Sarah ignored her.

"JOSH! Oh my gosh, he's _totally_ in love with me, and he's SO cute! Have you seen him recently?" Sarah said, still trying to sound enthusiastic but only succeeding in sounding fake. Diana and Lily gave each other signifigant looks. Sarah had been so obsessed with a boy named Josh that it was all she could talk about. He was the only thing she had even mentioned to them for weeks, and it seemed as though she exaggerated everything that went on between them. Which happened to be nothing. They hardly ever talked, and when she waved hello to him in the corridors and he so much as glanced at her while she did so, she would run to Lily and Diana and tell them a ridiculous story of how they had run into each other and he had picked up her books and walked her to class to make up for his clumsiness.

"Oh, it was Josh? Well, that's nice..." Lily said, humoring her friend and biting back a sharp comment on the tip of her tongue.

"Really, I know. But, Bobby asked me on a date for the same time, and I just don't know whom I want to go with. You know? Well, maybe _you_ don't, but still, it's so hard choosing between boys when they're both so cute," Sarah said. It was a known fact that Bobby was currently going out with a girl that had left Hogwarts last year and didn't date anyone equal to or below him in age. Not to mention he was quite superficial and was known to date only the prettiest girls. And, though Sarah had certain charming characteristics about her, she's not what you would deem classically attractive if you didn't know her.

Lily twitched and gave Sarah a dirty look. What did she mean she wouldn't know about that? "And Will was definitely flirting with me, but you know, I don't like him as much as Josh. Josh is just perfect in every way. And I think we might go farther then where we're at right now!"

Lily opened her mouth to tell Sarah off, but instead decided she'd just leave it alone. "It's time for lunch, so let's go...I'm starving and sick of this work." They all got up and stretched, sauntering out of the common room and listening to Sarah babble on about topics that no one could possibly care to talk about.

When they arrived at the Great Hall, most of the school was already milling around and chattering happily among their friends. The three sat down in their usual spots and began to dig into their lunch.

"And you know, I'll bet you anything that Ricki was drunk when she said yes to him. But then, I don't think she's very pretty so, take what you can get, right?" Sarah drawled on. Diana growled and slammed her fist on the table.

"WILL YOU—..." but stopped, when she realized that an eerie hush had fallen over everyone around her. Slowly and gracefully, dark-feathered owls soared through the Great Hall clasping official-looking letters in their claws. There was worried muttering between the students and most everyone looked worried to death.

All three of the owls dispersed over the hall and swooped down, dropping their letters right onto the laps of the recipients. This time, two Hufflepuffs and one Slytherin received a letter.

xxx

By the end of the day, Lily was in a very irritable mood. Diana was too; therefore they didn't really take pleasure in talk to the other. Sarah, on the other hand, had the tendency to be blissfully unaware of other people's moods, including her two closest friends. Thus, they all parted ways, and Lily was left to get ready for her date alone. "Date." Lily rolled her eyes. She was very unexcited about this little get together with James Potter, mainly because of the reasons this date was even taking place. The only reason they were going anywhere was because he called her high-maintenance and she wanted to show him she was not. She smirked—she would show him she was as low-maintenance as possible. Chuckling, she leaned down to her laundry pile and pulled out a dirty shirt with a tomato sauce stain on it...

James checked his watch—in all honesty, Lily was not late at all. Actually, he had just arrived. However, James was trying to look as if he had been waiting for hours and that Lily was ages late. If she were to come now and be ten minutes early, he would make sure, regardless, that he was tapping his foot and glancing irritably at his wrist watch. Five minutes later, Lily strolled in. She had a small smirk on her face as she walked up to James as relaxed-looking as possible. She wanted to be the epitome of "unhigh-maintenance," whatever that was.

"What?" Lily asked innocently as James scanned her up and down looking slightly aghast. He couldn't believe that the usual prim and proper Lily Evans with the perfectly ironed shirts and impeccably clean, shiny black loafers was prancing around in an obviously dirty shirt and old jeans. Not to mention her hair looked unbrushed, her face unscrubbed, and her shoes unshiny. She happened to be wearing the most ugly and oldest pair of tennis shoes he had ever seen.

James shook it off. "Nothing. Let's just go..."

xxx

"Where exactly are we going?" Lily asked, as James led her to a statue of a one-eyed witch. It was a rather gruesome looking scuplture with an unsightly hunchback and adorned in old rags. "Is this what our date is? A picnic by an ugly statue? Wow, I feel so honored," Lily said.

"What would you do if I said yes? Complain?" James taunted. Lily scowled and pursed her lips. "_No, _I wouldn't mind one bit!" Lily said.

James smirked and rolled his eyes. He whipped out his wand and tapped the hunchback three times and a small doorway that only a relatively slim person could fit through appeared. Lily's eyes grew a bit bigger and James took the opportunity to smile cheekily at her. "Ladies first," James said.

"_Meow_," came the feline sound from behind them. Mrs. Norris slinked around the corner with a malicious look in her eyes which any normal cat could not possibly posess. James cursed under his breathe and soon enough, he heard the disgruntled voice of Filch the Caretaker not far behind his precious cat. "You've just darted off Mrs. Norris! What have you found now, my dear? Heh, we'll get those lowly scums of the earth, now won't we?" James shook his head...Filch was obviously losing his mind to have only a cat for company.

"James!" Lily hissed. "Why are we just standing here!" James snapped out of it and cursed again, shoved Lily down the small door and then jumping in (not very gracefully, I might add) him self. He shut the door, and suddenly, everything was pitch black. "Er...Lils? You all right?"

"Urgh! You dolt! You shoved me and then nearly trampled me! Do I _look_ all right?" Lily said.

James bit his lip and shrugged. "Well, I can't really see you..." He began to walk slowly and feel the wall...til he stepped on something large, and soft. "AGHHH! WHAT are you DOING!" Lily yelped in pain. She quickly stumbled to her feet and rubbed her back indignantly. "This is absolutely ridiculous! Why are you walking around blindly and stepping on me when you could just used your wand?" She took her wand out and whispered _"Lumos!" _which immediately lit up the small area of space they were occupying.

She looked at him and giggled. "You've gotten all muddy."

He looked at her after pulling out his own wand and snorted. "_I've_ gotten muddy? What about _you_? You're worse. Not that it matters though, since your clothes were already filthy," he said.

Lily, suprisingly, did not get mad but burst into a fit of giggles. "I-I-I was trying to prove that I w-wasn't high-maintenance," she gasped. James was laughing as well by now and simply grabbed her hand and led them down the long, winding passage which led to the basement of Honeyduke's.

A/N: As I'm writing this author's note, it's nearly 2 months (give or take a few) since my first author's note at the beginning of this chapter where I was commenting about my Math exam. Heh, sorry about that! Well, here's the sad chapter that was extremely anti-climatic to me. Hopefully, the next chapter, which contains the rest of the date and then some, will be a little better. ;/ I thought this chapter would be a little more interesting but I proved myself wrong! Hopefully you guys aren't as hard on me as I was with myself...PLEASE REVIEW:D

P.S. You think I can get 2 reviews so I can reach 200? Help me out here!


	21. A Wild Time

Disclaimer: I don't own nuffink.

The Wind Through My Hair 

They had gotten to the cellar of Honeyduke's and, after some hesitation; Lily finally followed James through the trapdoor and hid behind a large crate with him. Though, of course, James _did _have to yank her hand up in order to get her to go through with breaking about fifty school rules.

"_We could get expelled for this!" _Lily hissed vehemently as they crouched together, waiting for the owner of the store to stop shuffling around his cellar.

"We're not going to get caught. Will you cool your jets? _And _lower your voice. Your current 'whisper' has made me gone deaf," James said. Lily opened her mouth to retort, but he clamped her mouth shut with his hand and became anxious when he saw the shopkeeper begin moving towards the door. They heard a distinct clicking sound, and James hopped up, extending a hand for her to grab. She clasped his hand and pulled herself up and then huffed when she realized he had already started for the door while she was still dusting off her clothes and wiping her mouth on her sleeve; she had drooled a bit when he kept his hand over her mouth to prevent her from talking.

"Hey, wait a second, Mr. Gentleman!" Lily said sarcastically.

"Well, what are you dusting your clothes off for? They were filthy to begin with, so you might as well get them as dirty as you like," he said. He wiped his right hand on his robes, looking disgusted. "Yeck! You drool like a dog, Evans...Come up to the top of the stairs with me so we can dash out the door as soon as I open it..._Jesus_, you're taking a long time."

"Well, I didn't know we were going out in public, otherwise I would have worn something a bit more tasteful," she said, just as he opened the door a crack, and peered out.

"Go!" he whispered, allowing Lily to scuttle out first, and then following her. He shut the door as quietly as possible, and when he turned around...

"Oof!" Lily tripped and bumped into the shop owner who was on his way to the cellar again. James' eyes widened as the shopkeeper looked straight at him.

"Excuse me, ma'am...sir, what were you doing in my cellar?" He asked. James raised his eyebrows trying to look as if he would have rather been shackled to a raging hippogriff than sneaking around a Honeyduke's cellar. Him? Psh, _as if._

"Pardon? I don't know _what _you're talking about," James said.

"Well...why are you coming out of my cellar? Have you _stolen_ anything?" His tone of voice gained a distinct note of hostility.

"I haven't stolen anything! I've never even been_ in_ the cellar...or ANY cellar for that matter!" James said, looking enraged and appalled...also a bit desperate, depending on how you looked at it.

"Then why is your hand on the knob of the door to the storage cellar?" the shop owner asked.

"Er..." James said, glancing at his hand, and then snatching it away from the doorknob, as if it had burned him. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

"This is absolutely ridiculous! Empty out your pockets before I call secur..."

"RUN, LILS!" James shouted, pushing aside a gaggle of curious people who had stopped to watch the going-ons, and grabbed Lily's hand. He had to pull her along at first because she had been caught off guard and shocked, but she soon caught on and ran as fast as she could to keep up with him. It was difficult, dodging the displays...

Which is why when James, with his excellent reflexes, dodged an unexpected "Hypnotic Lollipops" stand, Lily, with reflexes not as toned as James, glanced at the stand, and found she could not look away from the swirling confections. She skidded to a halt, and crashed into the display, causing hundreds of black-and-white swirling, Hypnotic Lollipops to tumble down in all directions. They hit the ground, many of them shattering. Lily snapped out of her reverie and glanced around confusedly. James looked upon the scene with and expression nothing short of horror. He tugged at her arm, desperately wanting for her to start running. There was no way they could afford to pay for _that_ much candy.

Lily seemed to agree, and she resolved to start running when she saw the shop owner finally making his way through the chaos occurring in his store.

"Hey, you two! COME BACK HERE!" he yelled, twitching madly.

They finally reached the door, as it was not far away. The shop keeper came right up to the glass door and reached for the handle...

"_Colloportus!" _Lily yelled, and the door would not open, sealing shut.

James groaned and rolled his eyes. "Right, this is the last thing we need."

"What are you on about? I've trapped the owner inside already!" Lily said, pushing past him outside. "Oh," she said, as she viewed the pouring rain from underneath the overhanging balcony above them.

"What do we do now?" Lily asked him. There was a tiny note of disappointment in her voice; the date might have been a bit fun after all. The door banged dangerously behind them as the shop owner continued to try and open the door without magic. She glanced behind her and bit her bottom lip. They'd obviously have to decide swiftly...it wouldn't be long before the owner gathered his wits and took out his wand.

"Alohamora!" The Honeyduke's shop owner yelled. He opened the door, and, in his haste, knocked down a poor elderly woman standing by it.

"Oh, MY!" She screeched. The shop owner looked down in surprise, and tried to quickly help her up. Many people, who were stuffed underneath the overhanging balcony trying to avoid the rain, watched the scene with interest. The shopkeeper looked frazzled and insane as he searched for the culprits, and did not do much to help the old woman who had fallen. Indeed, the moment he pulled her up hastily and muttering an insincere apology, she had slipped and fallen again. He took no notice, and spotted Lily's bright red hair and began to move towards them.

"Hey, you berk, you're not going to just leave her there, are you?" a young woman in her 20's asked the owner.

"I—well_, what_?" he asked.

"You can't just knock her down! How rude!" another older woman said, looking very horrified at his barbaric behavior.

The shopkeeper scowled. "I'm a bit busy, I'm sorry you all, but you must—NOW, REALLY!" Another woman had pushed him down on the ground. "How does _that _feel, hm? You don't like it very much, do you? Before you think to knock down a poor old lady, you ought to think about how it feels!" There was a murmur of agreement among the young and middle-aged shoppers in the area.

"I thought we were past all this female discrimination by now!" another lady shouted.

Lily could not help but snigger as she witnessed the scene unfold. She had her fist in her mouth as she watched the shop owner, who had not meant to knock down anyone, let alone knock them down based on sex, look very confused and not quite sure what to do. He was looking straight at both James and Lily, who both found the whole thing quite hilarious, and was still longing to bust them. The women had formed a sort of circle around him though.

"Really, this is simply...simply ludicrous!" the shopkeeper said, as he got himself together and pushed through the enclosing circle. James' eyebrows shot up as he realized the shop owner had gotten braver, and he grabbed Lily. "COME ON!" he said, running out into the rain. They both stumbled through the soft, muddy path. When Lily looked behind her, she could hardly make out the face of any in particular; only the faint outline of people's bodies could be seen running through the heavy downpour.

When James was sure they had lost their pursuer, he slowed down. They were both already soaking to the bone, so it didn't matter if they stood still in the rain for hours... "Do you want something to eat?" James asked her.

"WHAT?" Lily shouted over the tumultuous noise the rain was making.

"DO. YOU. WANT. TO. EAT?" He yelled.

"OKAY!" she said.

He led her into a restaurant to their right. There was the strong aroma of incense and fried food. There were a few faded Chinese paintings on the wall, and an algae-filled fish tank...that might have contained a few dead fish and some grindylows. The walls were painted with chipped, dark red paint and the ground had grimy wood floors. James led them to a tiny table in the corner, and they both sat down.

"Hello!" a cheery old oriental woman said. She had her graying black hair tied in a bun and wore a traditional outfit of some Asian culture. "What you want to eat?" she said in broken English.

"Um...where _are_ we exactly?" Lily asked.

"Where you are? You at Ling's! Ling serve moogle Korean food...very good. We witches, but we know there no moogle place to eat in hog-meade. So, you want to eat?" She said.

It took Lily a moment to realize "moogle" was the equivalent of muggle. "Have you got fried rice?" Lily asked. She hadn't had it since she was a child.

Their waitress gave a sharp nod, and walked off to make their food before allowing James to place his order. James cocked an eyebrow, but shrugged. "I guess this means she wants us to share."

"I don't know if I want to share with the likes of you," Lily said. James gave her a look, and Lily stared back. It was then that they both began laughing once they finally took a good look at each other and the previous events finally seemed to trigger in their brain.

"I—I didn't mean to knock down th-th-the hypnotic lollipops!" Lily struggled to say. James wiped his eyes gingerly and mussed up his hair, sighing, glad to be able to breathe.

"I don't think Honeyduke's will like to be seeing our faces there again. I reckon he'd shove slugs down our throats, or something," James said.

"And then add salt!" Lily added. The hilarity of the situation only intensified when the waitress brought out their food.

The rice looked like it should have, and appeared to be steaming hot and very greasy. Lily dumped several spoonfuls onto her plate, and then waited for James to do the same. When she didn't she gave him a quizzical look. "What are you waiting for? I'm hungry, but I'm not going to start eating without you. I'll look like a total pig!" James appeared to be staring intensely at the platter of fried rice.

"I...I think I've seen something move in our food, Lils," he said. Lily rolled her eyes. "Look, just because this isn't the best location for a restaurant...and it doesn't exactly look clean...well—that's not reason to be paranoid about the food."

"No, really, Lils, look!" She stared at the food and looked up quickly to tell him she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. However, she immediately snapped her gaze back to the food and squinted—she _had _seen something move! In addition to that, with a longer inspection, she could spot steaming bugs (beetles, perhaps?) and slimy chopped salamanders mixed in with the soy sauce drenched rice.

"I think there's cooked devil's snare in here as well..." James muttered as he tried to rip the grasp of one of the green chopped veggies from the food. Lily shrieked and jumped up from her seat, causing the chair to clatter onto the ground as she tried to further herself from the crawling crippled wasp that was trying to escape from her plate.

"WHAT? WHAT HAPPEN?" Their waitress scurried over, looking very concerned. "Something wrong?"

"We...uh..." Lily took a moment to catch her breath. "We think you got us the wrong order...I asked for _FRIED RICE._" Lily said, making sure to enunciate very carefully. The woman looked at their dish confused.

"That is fried rice. You want something other?" she asked. James snorted.

"I _don't _think that's fried rice," James said.

"It is moogle fried rice! It has the rice and the chicken, and the sausage, and the peas...that what you want, no?" The waitress asked them, pointing to the salamanders, assorted bugs, and chopped devil's snare as she listed the ingredients. They were not allowed a response because Lily once again lost her mind as a slug climbed onto her hand. She let out a blood-curdling scream and shook her hand frantically. The slug hung onto her finger, hanging on until she gave one last jerk of her arm; he went flying onto the waitress's face. Lily stumbled backwards from the force of her arm flailing, and fell onto the table. The rice scattered everywhere, and creatures went crawling every which way.

"WE'RE _LEAVING,_" Lily said in a tone of voice that allowed no room for argument. Not that James would have protested leaving.

She grabbed her bag, looking incredibly shaken, and stormed outside. James left money for the very confused waitress, and jogged after Lily who had suddenly gained a special talent for track. When he arrived outside, it was still raining very heavily, and Lily was sitting on a bench, not able to find shelter from the rain (or choosing not to go into the equally sketchy locations). James walked toward her softly, afraid he might send her into another frenzy. He realized at that moment that Lily looked extremely lonely. She seemed stripped naked of her usual wall of protection, and she looked like the young, scared girl, soaking wet in the rain, that most people expected her to be.

"Are you okay?" James asked.

"I—I'm fine, why?" Lily asked. The previous thoughts James' had were pushed to the back of his mind as the stormy, defiant Lily he knew resurfaced.

"You seemed a bit upset, is all," James said. Lily took offence to the statement more than he had expected.

"Yeah? Well, I'm fine. Let's go back to Hogwarts now, please," Lily said.

"If that's what you want..." James said. She promptly got up and walked ahead of him towards Honeyduke's with her arms folded, looking particularly moody. Lily could not possibly be that unnerved by a few bugs, could she? Something else was obviously bothering her, but he could not think of anything that could have recently brought her down to such a level of sulkiness except for the bug incident. And that was far too simple an answer.

When they arrived at Honeyduke's, Lily stopped and looked at James with trepidation. "Do I just walk in or something?"

"Yeah, it's crowded in there—look," James said, looking at her earnestly. "Are you really okay?"

Her face softened a little and she nodded. "I'm fine, really. Can we just go back home now?"

James nodded. "I'll take the lead and cover you if it makes you nervous," he said, grabbing her hand and pushing through Honeyduke's store. It was still as crowded as ever since people were taking refuge from the rain. James swerved in and out through the entanglements of people. They found no problem getting into the cellar as the shopkeeper had mindlessly left the door ajar and was attending to a large group of customers who were demanding he retrieve the Soybean Suckers from the top shelf.

James opened the trap door and led Lily into the dark underground tunnel back to Hogwarts, somehow satisfied with Lily's short, but sure answer when he asked if she was okay. Still, he did not let go of her hand, even after getting through Honeyduke's safely.


End file.
